Chapter 6: Summoned
Annabeth and I parted ways eventually, though I didn't exactly want the night to end.
But when I reached my room, I found a weathered parchment scroll on my pillow. I unfurled it, not sure what to expect.
Perseus Jackson. The Council convenes tomorrow at the break of dawn. Do not be late. You will know your place.
-Z
Hm. Not foreboding at all.
I laid down on my pillow, but I didn't really feel tired. I did, however, feel the screams of surprise and shock of the unclaimed grow louder in my mind. Someone had to do something about it, my gut told me.
'Nooo, sleeeeeeep,' my brain responded.
C'mon, you know you want to.
My brain, which was used to sleeping all the years of its life, was very stubborn about this. 'No.'
Annabeth will probably be awake too. She said she heard those things.
I was already outside, tiptoeing across the pavilion, trying not to grab the attention of the curfew-harpies. I was happily surprised to find out that once again, my gut had been entirely correct. Annabeth was already waiting by the firepit, staring into the glowing embers from the bonfire a few hours before. I walked up quietly.
"Hey, wha—OHSTYX!" I shouted, as Annabeth nearly jumped eight feet in the air, before landing on me, knife already at my throat.
"Oh. Hi Percy." Annabeth said, relaxing her grip. "Thought you might be coming."
"Obviously." I said sarcastically, trying to calm my nerves. "We should probably go soon. I'm surprised the harpies aren't calling the dogs on us already."
Annabeth stood. "Let's go then. I'm ready."
I looked around. "Where's Thalia?"
Annabeth's shoulders sagged a little, and she sighed. "Thalia had to leave with the rest of the Hunters. But tonight, I'm pretty sure that she's gonna be doing pretty much exactly what we're doing, if these voices are any clues."
I nodded. But before we began to teleport off (god-powers sure can come in handy sometimes) I felt Thalia's presence nearing.
"Best thing about being a god, Annabeth, is that we can appear anywhere." Thalia said, materializing next to us. "What's up, Percy?"
"Nothing much, Pinecone Face. Just an eternal case of insomnia, apparently." I said. "These dam voices won't let us sleep."
Thalia cracked a smile, while Annabeth was still confused as ever. I'd tell her later.
"Let's go save these dam kids. Where we heading first?"
As if in answer, suddenly I automatically focused in on one voice, pinpointing the location of the unclaimed, circumstances, and best way to approach. Judging by the looks on the others' faces, they were seeing/hearing the same things too.
"Wow, that's neat." I said. "Let's go."
In an instant, we had teleported nearly halfway across country. In a warehouse, hunkered down behind a couple of boxes, was our target. The teen was shaking harder than a leaf in a hurricane, clutching some sort of sharp, jagged piece of metal. On the other side of the boxes, three large Cyclops were hunkered over a fire, a pot of boiling water over it. They were calling out, trying to lure the teen to them, using voices that must have had some importance to the unclaimed demigod, whoever they belonged to.
As we appeared nearby, it took our target nearly a minute to finally notice us. When he did, he jumped a little in shock.
The boxes rattled, and the teen's face paled.
"Hey, did you boys hear that?"
"Yeah, I think it came from over here."
"Well, don't just stand there like the idiots you two are, go find out!"
I put a finger to my lip, and quietly appeared next to him, drawing Riptide. Annabeth and Thalia did the same, and drew their weapons. The teen was glancing between all of us and our weapons, but he seemed to prefer us to the Cyclopes.
The pile of boxes exploded, and a Cyclops with a triumphant grin was standing over us. Upon seeing not one, but four children of the gods hunkered down, the grin grew even wider.
That's when we attacked.
Thalia raised her shield, staying in front of the Unclaimed. Annabeth and I leapt onto the Cyclops, plunging our twin blades deep into his chest. The Cyclops grunted in pain, noticing two hilts stuck in his chest, before exploding into golden powder. The other two Cyclopes looked up, noticing us standing over the golden remains of their fallen comrade.
"My boy!" One Cyclops said, in a shrillish voice. "You cursed half-breeds killed my boy!"
Wow, there was such a thing as female Cyclopes.
"How about we let you go meet him then?" Annabeth said, picking up her dagger and hurling it with deadly accuracy straight at the Cyclops' eye. The mother-Cyclops ducked, however, and Annabeth's knife impaled the forehead of the Cyclops behind her.
"AH! My other boy! My boys!" the mother said, howling. "Now you're in for it, half-breed! You'll rue the day that you messed with Ma Gasket and her boys! I'm going to grind you into a powder, and eat you like toothpaste!"
"I doubt that very much, lady." I said, raising Riptide. "You gotta get through me first."
Ma Gasket growled. She turned, and picked up a large forklift, raising it over her head like it was a cardboard box. She tossed it at us.
Thalia positioned herself in front of the Unclaimed, shield raised, and Annabeth and I knew in a moment what the plan was.
Ma Gasket laughed maniacally as the forklift flew towards us, but her laughter was stopped short when the machine blew into a thousand pieces as Annabeth and I simply punched it. One small pipe hit the Cyclops in the forehead, knocking her flat against the ground. We walked over, and Annabeth retrieved her dagger. Ma Gasket moaned, pressing a hand to her forehead.
"Wh-What sort of children are you? Who has that kind of—" she began, but suddenly her eye widened. "Nooo, nonono… The gods cannot interfere with morta—" she began, but I cut her off there.
"Wrong. It's a pleasure to introduce you to the new trio of the gods of the Unclaimed. Have fun in Tartarus." I said, drawing Riptide and stabbing downward.
Just like that, Ma Gasket was no more.
"What—" the Unclaimed teen said, fear written all over his expression as he backed away from the three of us, into a corner. "—W-who are you people?!"
"It's alright, we're here to help." Annabeth said, moving forward. "This is Thalia, This is Percy, and I'm Annabeth. You are?"
"Rai. R-Rai Greenhill." The boy said, holding out his jagged metal suspiciously. "What on earth is going on right now? Why were those… those things here? What on earth is up with that horrifying shield that she has?"
I glanced at Thalia, seeing that she still hadn't put her shield away. She absently touched the shield, which shrank back into a chain bracelet. Rai yelped in surprise at seeing this.
"I understand, you have a lot of questions." Annabeth said. "And that's perfectly natural. Come on, we can answer them."
We led Rai outside what was evidently the 'Monocle Motors' car factory, but it looks like it's been shut down for quite some time.
"Okay, start with the…" the boy said, but then realized that there was too much he wanted to start with.
"How about we start at the beginning then?" I said, stepping forward. "Okay, how much do you know about Greek mythology?"
The boy shrugged. "A-a little."
"You know, like Olympus? Heroes and gods and whatnot?" I continued.
"Yeah?" Rai asked, looking around him nervously.
"That's all real." Thalia cut in. "All of Greek mythology. The monsters attack us because we're different from the rest of the world."
Rai nodded. "The sudden appearance, the weapons, the whole punching-a-frikkin-forklift-away-thing… I could assume. And besides all that, that monster kept saying you guys were 'half-breeds'?"
"Yeah. We're children of the gods of Olympus. Half-bloods, demigods, whatever you want to call it. Monsters chase after us because of our godly blood." I explained.
Rai nodded, but then suddenly he paled a little.
"But you guys weren't always with me there, were you? I mean, those things initially called me out, not you guys, right?"
"Yes." Annabeth said.
"So that means…" Rai said, paling even more.
"You are also a demigod. Half-human, half-god." I confirmed. "And we've come to help you get to a safe-place."
Rai looked at me for a moment, his skin white as a sheet. I could feel his breathing become irregular, and I could sense the cloud passing over his eyes. His eyes lulled towards the back of his head.
"Hang on, I gotcha." I said, keeping him from hitting his head on the pavement as he fell. "Ready, guys?"
"Ready, Percy." Annabeth said, sheathing her dagger.
In a moment, we had appeared once more on the hill to the Big House. In the surrounding vicinity, I suddenly remembered our disappearance from the camp. The harpies were squawking with confusion as they tried to find us to punish us for breaking curfew, but we were safely out of their sights for the time being. We opened the door to the Big House, toting Rai between the three of us.
"Watch his head, Thalia." Annabeth said, in the darkness.
"I'm watching it, Wise Girl."
"Hey, that's my nickname." I joked.
"No, yours is Seaweed Brain, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth joked back.
"You know that I meant to use." I said, rolling my eyes. "Now where are the resting cots?"
"Through that doOR!" Annabeth squeaked, as the lights suddenly flicked on.
Chiron was in his wheelchair, looking at us expectantly as we awkwardly held Rai's still-unconscious body between the three of us. He looked between each of us in turn, but when his eyes fell on Rai's body, he frowned.
"W-who is this?" Chiron said, rolling forward. He studied Rai for a moment, before frowning even more. "I don't remember seeing him anywhere…?"
"He's a new camper." I said quietly, in case anyone else was sleeping in the house. I had heard that Rachel might have stayed the night here, but I hadn't stayed long enough to verify. "We just brought him back, and he didn't take the news too well."
"I can see that, but—" Chiron began, but he glanced between the three of us again, raising an eyebrow. "—You three went out in the middle of the night and found another half-blood? Where? There shouldn't be anyone this close to camp at this time."
"Um," Annabeth said, in a kind of quiet voice. "Detroit."
Chiron leaned back in his chair. It took him a moment to respond.
"Detroit?" he asked, confused. "How on earth did you three manage to pinpoint a single half-blood in a crowded city over at least a hundred miles away? How did you three get to Detroit so fast?"
"Well, you see…" I began slowly, still trying not to wake anyone up. "… when the gods originally made me a god, I may or may not have turned right around and turned my friends into gods as well."
Chiron raised an eyebrow. "Go on."
"Well, we didn't realize, but somehow we accidentally turned into gods of the Unclaimed. We can hear the voices of unclaimed demigods from… pretty much everywhere."
Chiron put a hand on his chin as he considered this.
"How many know of this immortality that you three have recently… discovered?" he asked.
"Mr. D knows, Grover, Thalia, Annabeth and I…" I said. "Besides that, nobody."
Chiron pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Percy, I know that this… this is actually exactly what you would have done with immortality as soon as you got it, but you do realize that Zeus will almost definitely not stand this, right?"
"Eh, right." I agreed. "Still working on that one."
"When is your next appointment with the king of the gods?" Chiron asked calmly.
"Tomorrow morning, early." I said.
Chiron didn't say anything, and he didn't need to. I knew we had a clock ticking. I was thinking about it as fast as I could. Chiron finally seemed to notice that we were still holding an unconscious half-blood.
"Well, let's see what we can manage to do with this one." Chiron said, wheeling through the doorways, into a room rowed with empty cots. Rachel slept on one in the corner, sleeping soundly. Rai was placed down on pretty much the first cot available. Despite our godly strength, our patience of awkwardly holding him had been drying up fast.
"What's his name?" Chiron asked, as he checked Rai for any wounds or health problems.
"Rai. Son of Demeter." I blurted out, before even needing to think about it.
Annabeth, Thalia, and Chiron just gave me a look.
"Percy, how do you know?" Chiron asked.
That was a good question. I thought about that. I hadn't really had any proof (e.g. seeing Rai get claimed), but I had still just… known.
"I don't know. Maybe just a perk of being a god of the Unclaimed?" I said, shrugging.
"Hm." Chiron said, turning back to his work. "We'll see. For now, perhaps you three should go get some rest…"
"That's just it. We couldn't sleep. And honestly, do gods even need sleep?" Annabeth wondered aloud.
"Yes. Even the gods need sleep. But if you can't sleep, then we'll have to figure out something for you three." Chiron said.
"Okay, we'll keep that in mind. Sorry to wake you, Chiron." I said, heading back out the door. "We're gonna try to be more quiet with this next one."
Chiron turned, giving us a quizzical expression. "The next one?"
"Yep. See you in a few seconds!" I said.
We vanished again.