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Thanks, you're brill!

The dawn on the day of the quest breaks quickly, without much color and without much bravado, unlike most dawns at Campy Jupiter, which are commonly streaked with many colors, vibrant yet clear with unnatural colors like a lemon-yellow or acid-green streak here and there, as it is something of a doodle pad for the children of Zeus. In fact last year, "Tammy, prom? – Rick" was etched across the sky in an ebony black at seven in the morning, the biggest scandal since an explicit drawing appeared the year before.

My chest was full of butterflies. No, my chest was full of butterflies going through a meat grinder.

I was not ready for a quest, but at least I'd be with Caly. Adventuring through towns, romantic little ice cream shops, flea-bite motels, kisses on the glittering shores of a beach.

We knew the nature of our quest now. There was a disturbance in Florida. All strange things wash up in Florida. We were supposed to go find… well, it sounds so lame, but… kind of a gang of Nereids with a kraken in their possession. So, basically, bunches of freaking mermaids have been picking on people with their big scary monster. So that's kind of it. Ten days max. Easy. Not quite sure why they picked the son and daughter of Aphrodite and Jupiter, though. Doesn't make much sense there. I mean, we're going in the ocean, but the praetors assure us that we will not get zapped or drowned. I'm just hoping that there's some kind of mythological grand design behind the whole thing, because right now, it's crap.

Our packs are packed. The beds in our cabin are made. The air is new and fresh.

I meet Caly, Harmony, Tammy, and Joseph outside in the main square. Then I understand, a little bit, at least, why they chose us. We all look so… normal. Anyone could pass us off as five teenagers walking back from a movie or something. Harmony has her hair up in a messy bun. Caly has hers twirled around in a fancy braid, but it still looks natural enough on her. Joseph looks like he's hiding a huge worry, and Tammy, a girl from Demeter, looks like she just doesn't care. She's around nineteen. Probably been on tons of quests before. But then again, quests are pretty rare. It's entirely possible that she's just hiding her emotions.

No one else is up yet. That's the way it's supposed to be, though. A silent note to the praetors. Our cabins empty. The cover of going to visit our sick relatives for a few days. A quest would make everyone nuts. They'd all want to go on one, and fighting amongst the legions would break out. Everyone thinks no one had been on a quest in forever, when really, they're all happening right under their noses.

We slip through the portal. It's frosty for San Francisco, but already the morning sun is catching the dewdrops on the hill. We need to move, get out of the area.

I hate to say get going to so we can get back, but that's kind of what this is like.

Harmony POV:

All I want the morning of the quest is to see Joseph. I know, lame, right? It's not like I haven't had tons of better looking or smarter or cooler or nicer guys chase me before. But that was just it – wasn't being chased! And of course, this is the only one I want. The one that doesn't want me back.

My eyes trained on his lips. Kiss me, I willed him silently over and over. But he never did. Never even threw me a glance. It was a little sad, really. I was so… devoted. It was weird.

We walked for a few miles until we got to one of the locations of the goddess of the rainbow's health food shop. We picked up some fruit leathers and vitamins to last us the trip. Then we got a ride to the airport, boarded our flight, and soared out of California, but not before we had a 'casualty' – Tammy got an Iris-message that her father was fatally sick on their farm in Kansas, and Tammy, apologizing as much as she could, had to abandon the quest, but left us with all her maps and money. We wished her luck and hoped her dad would get better. Lame, I know. But what else could we do? This was time-sensitive. Ten days.

That's how long we had before the mermaid's Kraken laid its eggs. We already were reading the Florida papers online. There were strange sightings on the coast. That was enough evidence for us that we needed to shut down the operation soon.

But regardless of the worry, the air was SO calming. Being up so high, the thin air, being above the clouds… the promise of thunder somewhere high above… I spent the flight gazing up while the others in the plane gazed down. The flight had no turbulence, smooth as could be. We are glossing over the world. I felt really, really, good, nearly forgetting about Joseph.

When we touched down my inflated mood escaped me. The only good thing that happened in that airport was that Jo helped me out of the place by steadying my hand on his, a very guyish and cute move. I wasn't feeling so hopeless. I know, lame. It's amazing all the things a girl can conjure up with a little imagination.

We had one conversation at a Burger King in Tampa.

"Harmony?"

"Yeah?"

"Um… this wasn't the best quest pairing."

"Oh, yeah… I guess."

"Don't…uh… don't do me any favors. If you don't… you know… like…."

"Oh, that's okay."

I didn't even really understand what he was talking about. Couldn't he see how much I liked him? Was he hinting at liking me too? I didn't know. When I wasn't on top of the game, love was so confusing!

Cain POV:

I could tell my sister and Joseph were… distracted. At best. I wondered how long it would take them to figure out that they loved each other. I would have been directing my romantic attention to Caly, but it appeared that I was the brains of the operation: Caly was sleeping, Tammy had left us before we had boarded our flight, and Joseph and Harmony were… otherwise engaged. Mermaids. Really? Not exactly the kind of thing you'd brag about. "Hey, I defeated a tribe of evil mermaids bent on destroying Earth with their kraken!" I also tried the same meaning about a hundred different ways: "You know that you'd be dead right now if my girlfriend and I hadn't saved the world from a bunch of mermaids!" or "you know mermaids can get very deadly when in gangs? Well, don't worry, because I defeated the most powerful one. You're safe now." SOO lame. And just kind of pitiful.

Ten days before the kraken hatched its eggs. It laid them on a secluded shore with no public access. The mermaids dwelled only a mile out, their kraken buried in an underground cave. We'd learned all of this from our special contact, Percy Jackson, who was a son of Poseidon and had personally gone out, dove in the ocean, and checked out the scene. He was a young marine biologist. We had his number stowed away somewhere for emergencies.

In this, I guess Caly was our best asset, although I wasn't sure how psyched I as to be sending her down to face the Kraken alone. But I couldn't go down there, and neither could Harmony. Wouldn't… work.

Joseph could be very useful as a bodyguard. With superior battle skills and death on his side, he could be indispensable. And he knew what he was doing. He was well-trained. If only he could keep his head in the game and not on my sister!

Harmony. What would she really be able to do? She was like Daphne in Scooby-Doo. She could end up with the pretty roles, able to sweet-talk us out of situations. Don't ever count something as unnecessary until it really is.

And me. I had by default become the brains. I would have to devise plans to getting the eggs out, slaying the Kraken, and capturing the mermaids. I had the worst of it, in my opinion. But there was no time for regrets.

The moment the plane touched down, we could all feel it:

It was time for DOING.

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