Chapter 8: Escaping and Storytelling

Wow. Part 2 being way longer than Part 1? WTF?

"Mom?" Percy gaped at the sight of his (estranged?) mother. She has gotten older, alright, after all, it's been almost two decades since they last saw each other. Sally was confined to a motorized wheelchair now. She had gray limes all over her once prosperous brown hair, her eyes have gotten dim, and she was wearing hospital robes, for some reason.

"Percy? Is that really..." she started coughing. "...you?"

"Mom, it's me, your son." he said. Despite the hurt he felt when she yelled at him, Percy ran to his mother and gave her a warm hug as tears ran down their cheeks.

"Percy...I...I'm so sorry for what I've done years ago to you..." Sally cried into her son's mechanical shoulder.

"Mom...I forgive you...and I need your help." Percy said tearfully. "My children are in danger, but I need my wife's army to save them. I have to disable that barrier covering the planet."

"But..." Sally gasped. "You can't just go..."

"Mom, I have to." Percy spoke firmly. "My family's in danger and I can't let down now, like I did many years ago."

"But...but..."

"Hey, Ms. Jackson," Clarisse snorted. "Percy needs your help and you still think he's the same kid I trashed in wrestling."

"Don't remind me, Clarisse."

"As I was saying, you gotta help him. We've got enough info to spare."

Sally was about to protest, but she knew it was no use and simply sighed. "I suppose we can talk this over. Follow me."

She moved the joystick of her motorized wheelchair and everyone followed her to the kitchens.

After what felt like an eternity in her mind...and about ten seconds in reality, Elise made her decision.

"Cherry...you're tagging with us and we'll help you find your dad." she affirmed. The young girl's eyes widened and her lips beamed into a bright smile. Ssssam and Chuck were shocked that Elise was willing to risk her life.

"Really? THANK YOU!"

She kept hugging Elise and thanking her so loudly the young woman's ears almost exploded from the high amount of decibels her ears were taking. Reluctantly, Elise hugged back.

"Alright, Chuck, keep an eye on her." she ordered. "I'll see if we're all prepared to move out."

Cherry started walking around with Chuck and Ssssam. Elise walked over to Tyson, who was feeding the drakon in the warehouse. The cyclops seemed to be enjoying himself, performing some dangerous work by feeding a live drakon.

"You seem to be enjoying this work." she told him.

"Of course, I am." Tyson smiled. "I've always wanted to pet big monsters like this guy."

"You've never done that before?" Elise asked.

"Nope. I only worked with people and horses. That gets boring quick."

"We need to move. Atlanteans might find us any minute."

Tyson nodded. "Everyone's had food and rest. They're ready to move out."

"Good, the-"

The ground suddenly shook with the sounds of explosions. All the freed prisoners were now screaming and panicking.

"Crap, they found us." Elise cursed. "Our priority is escaping their radar." she then told Tyson, who nodded.

They ran out of the warehouse, weapons raised as the drakon followed them with a mighty roar.

"Can I just say...wow." Percy gaped.

The kitchens were much larger than he expected. All kinds of cooking utensils and appliances lined the walls. Counters were scattered across the room. Percy felt like he was in a cooking show studio. Also, he started feeling a little older, like his partial immortality wasn't exactly immortality.

That felt unimportant, so he ignored it.

"How do you get all your ingredients? Do you have to get out of the Waystation to restock?" Kestrel asked.

"We do that when we restock on weapons." Grady explained. "The fridges are magical so we don't have to go outside for food and water."

"Grady, can you go feed the griffins?" Sally asked him. "We're going to prepare dinner."

"Please tell me there's blue food." Percy giggled excitedly.

"What world do you live in?" Kestrel asked him.

"Trust me, Kestrel, you'll enjoy blue food."

"Good." Sally smiled. "Looks like you'll be milking the red cows with Chris."

"Dang it."

The girls giggled at the two men's embarrassment.

Everyone fled the prison site to the outskirts of Kansas as Elise, Tyson, and a few other brave souls fended off the approaching Atlantean army.

"Is Cherry safe?" Elise asked Chuck, who just caved an Atlantean demigod soldier's face in with his club.

"The others managed to get her out. We gotta go!" he replied.

"But we can't let them track us down!" she said as she shot her crossbow at another Atlantean. More soldiers dropped dead on the ground, but more explosions occur that blew the warehouses apart. Debris flew everywhere as the Atlanteans rain down laser fire all over Elise and the others, who quickly run for cover. Unfortunately, not all of them made it in time. One of the griffins were shot down and a Germanus sacrificed himself, shielding some of his kin as Atlantean laser fire shot him all over his body until he dropped dead.

"Damnit! Now what?!" Elise cursed.

"I don't know!" Chuck yelled back, a yellow energy projectile nearly nailing him square in the shoulder as the bright volley of death continued. The Master Assassin felt like she was in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the Revolutionary War.

And that tiny thought gave her one little idea. She had a plan, so she quickly grabbed a disabled automaton whose body is still very much complete. Elise slowly got up from her cover while trying to use the broken machine as a meat shield...or metal shield since it's a robot. One laser struck the automaton in the chest, which made Elise tumble backwards a bit.

"Get the automatons and cover yourselves with them!" she ordered the others who had stayed behind. They complied and they all quickly moved back, the metallic cadavers of the Triumvirate Holdings automaton shielding themselves from the lasers, well, except for Tyson, who picked up a huge chunk of concrete to shield himself with. That was just part 1 of the plan. The second plan was all on her now, and that involved the typical wave of blue fire.

"Come on, everyone!" Elise told them. "Just a little bit longer!"

This plan wasn't exactly as going well as she hoped. The automatons were now filled with dents and molten hot holes from the laser fire. Tyson's big concrete slab wasn't doing any better as well. It was just falling apart, but it was fine. Everyone else was in a safe enough distance from the Atlanteans. Elise quickly turned to her Fae form, unleashing a furious wave of azure flames towards the enemy army with a mighty scream. The wave spread like a cone, incinerating numerous Atlanteans.

Exhausted and tired, Elise fainted only to be caught in her cyclops uncle's arms.

Percy wasn't exactly enjoying himself at the moment. He was finally welcomed back by his mom and two of his old friends, yet all he got was cow milking duty, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds. The immortal cows almost tried to bugger off when they saw him and his mechanical arm. It made him a little more frustrated that the cows were actually okay with Chris. Maybe he did this all the time, maybe he didn't. At least Kestrel had to slice and dice vegetables. Percy wouldn't be surprised if he found out she tried to use her katana in the kitchen.

At least his hard work paid off. Minutes later, Sally whipped up an impressive dinner for all of them in the form of grilled cheese sandwiches, lemonade (Percy's is obviously blue), and blue chocolate chip cookies. He didn't bother asking why there was a lack of meat. It's probably because of the fact that there are only three immortal cows in the Waystation's artificial farm.

Percy, along with Kestrel, Grady, and Katrina, finally got a decent meal and they ate away much to the amusement of Sally, Clarisse, and Chris.

Kestrel, for a perfect clone of a British daughter of Artemis, didn't exactly learn proper table etiquette. It didn't matter for Percy. At least she finally felt at peace for once. He took a sip of his blue lemonade and opened up a discussion.

"Alright, what's the situation? There's a barrier around the world that's preventing things beyond the atmosphere from entering Earth." Percy said. "How do we turn it off?"

"I do know how to." Kestrel admitted after swallowing a sandwich. "I never told you because it seemed impossible to do with the limited time we have."

"Kestrel, just tell us."

She sighed. "The Planetary Barrier is being powered by three generators. Golden towers, shooting beams of light up into the sky. One just happens to be in London. The other two, however, without a god's help, will take days to reach. The second one is in the ruins of San Francisco, and the third one in Hong Kong."

"Why can't we just blow the one here? Wouldn't that at least make a hole in the barrier?" Clarisse asked.

"Destroying or disabling a generator will only weaken the barrier." Kestrel explained. "The barrier will still be covering the entire planet. Even if only one generator is active, it's still too dangerous to even try to break through."

"Don't we have any allies around the world?" Percy asked.

"We do, but it's difficult to even communicate by one syllable words." Grady answered sadly. "With Iris and Britomartis captured, we have no other way of contacting anyone else outside the Waystation. There are other Waystations out there all around the world, housing all those who were lucky enough to escape the rule of the Atlanteans, but like I said, we can't contact anyone outside."

Percy was just about to give up, so he munched on a blue cookie and an eye suddenly glanced at...Katrina. He had an idea.

"What about Morpheus? Can we use his realm to communicate?" he asked, still chewing the cookie.

"What?" Katrina asked.

"Given your ability to trap people in nightmares, you must be sending their minds to the realm of your father." Kestrel guessed. "For a child of the god of dreams, you have to be that powerful."

"But..."

"Katrina." Grady comfortingly held her hand. "You're our only chance right now. You have to try."

The daughter of Morpheus glanced around the table and everyone was looking at her with eyes begging her to do it. After what she had done to Grady and the other prisoners, she didn't want to use her powers again, but their eyes ultimately made her nod at the son of Thanatos.

"What do you need me to do?" Katrina asked Percy.

"I need you to help me contact a few people."

Elise dreamed she was in a forest. The sun shone down on her so brightly it almost blinded her.

"Elise..." a calm male voice called out.

The raven haired woman quickly reached her tomahawk, but it wasn't there. She was unarmed in the dream, and that made her curse in the Fae language.

"Elise...my daughter..." the voice called, its words caused her to pale in shock.

She turned around to whoever spoke, and it was a man with perfect wind blown black hair, bright sea green eyes with blood red irises, and slightly tan skin. He wore a set of robes similar to Bran's, but was blood red in color.

It was her father, Perseus Jackson.

"Father? No...you died." Elise spoke, refusing to believe what she was seeing in front of her. After all, it was just a dream, right?

"Elise, listen to me." Percy said. "You need to know some valuable intel I found from London. There is a golden tower shooting a bright beam of light up in the sky in San Francisco. It's one of the three shield generators preventing all communications beyond Earth's atmosphere."

"Wait...you're really alive?" Elise asked. "Father..."

"My daughter, I don't have a lot of time. You need to disable the shield generator in San Francisco. I promise you, Elise, we'll reunite with your mother and save your brother. We'll be a whole family agai-"

Percy suddenly faded into the air before he can finish his message, leaving his daughter alone in the forest.

Elise woke up in what looked like an abandoned motel. The sounds of a drakon's roar rang in her ears.

Bran dreamed he was in a different jail cell than the one on Olympus. It was cleaner and everything around him was definitely more humane. Body and mind, he felt like hell after all the torture he went through thanks to Lianna, who was still under the influence of Annabeth's Apple of Eden. His body was covered in scars and loosely wrapped bandages, his hair was covered in dirt and he had a black eye. He groaned as he sat up.

"Bran." a voice called.

Panicked, Bran backed away to the wall of the cell, but he realized he was showing weakness. So, he walked towards the source of the noise as the cell door suddenly swung open. Bran succumbed to the temptation of escaping the cell, and once he does, the voice spoke again.

"My son...do not lose hope."

Bran looked to his right and he saw standing in front of him...was his father.

"F...Father?" he said weakly, still hurting from his hourly torture on Olympus.

"Bran." Percy stepped forward. "I've made contact with your sister. Your mother will arrive soon with an army and we'll save you. Please, just hang on."

"Please...hurry..." Bran mumbled as he fell on a knee, with Percy quickly trying to keep his son on his feet. "Lianna...her torture is getting worse."

"Lianna...Lianna Trine? Reports say she's dead." Percy said.

"No...Father...she's alive, they have an Apple of Eden they're using to control her..."

Bran's vision blurred severely. He was being woken up.

Bran woke up back on Olympus. He looked up and saw Annabeth holding her scepter with the Apple of Eden placed on top.

"Quit your yammering." she spat at his face before leaving the cell. Bran heard the screams of pain of a certain moon goddess as Annabeth willed Lianna to torture her own mother.

"AAAAAAAAH! LIANNA, PLEASE STOP! PLEASE..." Artemis screamed and cried out in pain as the sounds of metal penetrating skin and bones nearly breaking and healing over and over again blared into his ear.

The golden haired prince looked down in shame, like he had failed the moon goddess. He brought Lianna back to Artemis, but as a mindless torturer.

Percy woke up, a shocked look on his face. He was in Sally's room with Kestrel, Grady, and Katrina. The daughter of Morpheus took her hands off the ex Hero of Olympus's head as he turned to Kestrel.

"Kestrel, I think Lianna's alive." he said to her.

Her jaw hit the floor at what Percy told her.

"But...how?" she asked.

"She's on Olympus as a torturer. They're using mind control on her."

"What...?"

"We'll talk about it later."

The daughter of Morpheus sat on the floor, tired. "I need to take a breather."

Percy nodded and went over to Kestrel, who was in stunned silence following the news.

"You okay?" he asked her.

She nodded as she leaned to her side and allowed her head to rest on his shoulder. Percy wrapped an arm around her protectively.

"Alright, Elise will handle the one in San Francisco and we'll take the one in London. What about Hong Kong?" he asked the three of them.

"Before they tried to freeze me, I heard rumors..." Kestrel mumbled and everyone turned to her. "They're creating machines for space travel. There's a hangar somewhere, but I can't remember where."

"Then let's find some info on that. Until then, rest up."