The next morning, all of the demigods and mermaids were exhausted. Even Annabeth, who was the cause of their tiredness. The mermaids slept over (Lewis went home) and talked about what to do all night. Unfortunately, they got nowhere. They were no closer to figuring out why Antaeus would want to take away their powers than they were before Luke stormed off. Speaking of Luke, he was not part of the discussion. He stayed in his room, actually getting some sleep, all night and didn't even come out in the morning. Thalia, Annabeth, and Percy each tried banging on his door or yelling at him, to no avail. They went back down to the living room and sat groggily in the chairs, dozing off.
They were jolted awake by more banging, this time on the front door. Piper yawned and sleepily walked over to the door. She opened it and was immediately pulled out. That snapped Jason awake. He jumped up out of the chair, slowly followed by everyone else. Jason rushed over to the door, his sword in hand. There was a black figure carrying a struggling Piper over its shoulder. It was hard to make out. Just a black blob in the vague shape of a man.
"Hey! That thing is pulling a Hera on Piper!" Percy exclaimed. What startled Jason was Piper was laughing.
"Put me down!" Piper giggled. The figure set Piper on the street and they started walking back towards the house. Then something jumped out from the figure. It was a rat. The rat scuttled into the house and Cleo screamed.
"Guys! Look who's here!" Piper exclaimed, gesturing to the black figure. Even up close, Jason couldn't make out what the figure was. It was like a 2D black hole. It had no features, just solid black.
Piper noticed the confusion on their faces and nudged the figure. "Oh, sorry. Mist. I wanted to give you a fright," the figure chuckled in a deep, electronic voice. Like the things hackers use when they don't want you to recognize them. Then the figure began to morph into a fourteen-year-old girl with dark skin and gold eyes.
"Hazel!" Annabeth exclaimed and ran up to the girl. Percy and Jason felt hands on their backs and immediately jumped around, swords in hands. Behind them was a buff Chinese guy wearing a purple shirt.
"Frank!" Jason smiled.
"Gods, man. Don't do that!" Percy exclaimed. "But it's good to see my favorite… uh, cousin, or something." He knitted his eyebrows but gave Frank a hug anyway.
Jason frowned. "I thought I was your favorite cousin."
"Sorry, man. Frank's a descendent of Neptune and he can shape-shift."
"But… I can fly…"
"That just makes you Superman. Which makes you an alien. And, sorry man, can't like an alien."
Piper rolled her eyes. "Just shut up already!" Percy and Jason frowned on their now glued together lips. Frank went to stand by Hazel. Piper turned to them. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Well, we heard a war was coming!" Hazel said a little too excitedly.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Hecate sent you, didn't she." Hazel nodded. They were stopped from saying any more when a roar sliced through the air.
"Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth exclaimed angrily as she turned towards the bull-man. "I told you I would blame you if he showed up!"
"That was two months ago!" Percy retorted as he pulled out Riptide. The Minotaur was pawing the ground and staring daggers at Percy. There were a few dozen dracaenae surrounding his feet.
"You guys get the snake-ladies. I've got Tidy-Whitey over there," Percy said and charged the Minotaur. Frank turned into a mongoose and ran at the snake-women who, surprisingly, ran away in fear. Annabeth put on her Yankees cap and kept poking the women in the back. Piper started yelling at the dracaenae to attack each other while simultaneously stabbing them with her sword. Hazel used the Mist like a demon, swirling that stuff around everywhere and tricking the monsters' minds. Jason kept grabbing dracaenae, flying up to great heights and dropping them, causing the snake-women to burst into dust on the ground. Cleo got water from the plumbing and made a bubble around the monsters and Emma froze it, creating snake-pops. Then Rikki would boil it and the monsters would just be dust in the water.
While all of this was happening, Percy was fighting the Minotaur. The bull-man charged him but Percy jumped out of the way. Then he jumped up onto the monster's back and drove Riptide into the Minotaur's hide. He roared with pain and dissolved into golden dust.
"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. The nine of them were standing in a circle, looking at one last dracaena. Piper was singing. Annabeth whispered to Percy, "She says Antaeus is heading to Mako."
"You will never defeat him. Once he getsss what he wantsss he will be the mossst powerful being in the universsse," the snake-woman exclaimed lazily, under the spell of Piper's snake song.
Piper stopped singing long enough to ask, "And what does he want?"
"He needsss a ssssacrifice to do it. A special girl…" the monster answered. They all glanced nervously at each other. "A mermaid herssself, of course. Wait, why am I telling you thissss? I mussst kill you!" The dracaena charged Hazel who, on instinct, sliced the monster into dust.
"Hazel! We could've gotten more information! " Annabeth exclaimed angrily.
Percy put a hand on her shoulder and said in a scolding tone, "Annabeth, remember the kangaroo." Annabeth gave Percy a glare but backed off Hazel, leaving her very confused.
"Kang-" Hazel started.
Percy cut her off and explained what happened when he threw the stuffed animal at Annabeth. Frank started laughing hysterically while Hazel just shook her head with an amused expression.
"Okay, okay. We get it," Annabeth cut in. "We all have reflexes. Now can we please get to school? We're going to be late."