Chapter 16

Starbucks

Blade Roberts

They left the park and got on a ferry to the main part of San Fransisco. We went to a Starbucks on Fulton Street . We got our coffee and sat down. "So, where are we going first?" Caspia asked timidly. Snow twisted her ring. "I think we should go to Alcatraz. There was a group of men who escaped, one of which was the son of Poseidon. There might be echos that could tell us something."

Leo stared at her. "You mean Echo, that nymph from Salt Lake?"

"No, I mean remmenants of spirits who died in Alcatraz. Nico, is Frank Morris dead?" He shook his head, "He's still alive, but I doubt he'd be able to help us. If he escsaped from Alcatraz, he would stay as far away from it as he could, no matter how long it had been. They're still trying to find him today."

"If we knew where he was, we could IM him. Anyone have any ideas where he could be?" Topaz questioned, and everyone shook their heads.

Snow arched her eyebrows. "He stole a car when he escaped. If we could figure out where it went, we might have some idea." She paused. "When we get there I might be able to get it from visions."

I cleared my throat. "So, anything else intersting happening?"

"Blade, why don't you tell Caspia about your dream."

My face felt hot. "How-how did you know about that?" Nico smiled weirdly. "I can dream jump. I saw a little of what you saw when I was passing through. Don't worry, I mostly just saw the gods meeting."

Annabeth looked at him. "Tell us about the dream." I looked around. "Um, maybe we should wait for Leo to come back from the bathroom, and Sapphire to stop yelling at the employees." At the counter, Sapphire was screaming at a guy with a nametag that read "Todd."

"YOU ARE NOT CHARGING ME TEN WHOLE DOLLARS FOR THIS PIECE OF CRAP! YOU GAVE ME FUCKING BUTTERSKOTCH! I ASKED FOR FRICKING PEPPERMINT! I WILL NOT BUY TWO CUPS OF COFFEE BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN UNCAPABLE STAFF!" He looked nervous. "Please Ma'am, there are kids here. Please calm down, we'll only charge you for the one and you can keep both."

"DON'T CALL ME MA'ME YOU BOZO BASTARD! I AM NOT AN OLD LADY!"

"You go girl." Topaz said.

"Sapphire, sweetheart, calm down." Leo put his hand on her shoulder. She turned on him. "NOT YOU TOO! YOU'RE TAKING TODD FROM HELL'S SIDE?! I THOUGHT OUR RELATIONSHIP MEANT MORE TO YOU!"

He leaned on the counter. "Please, just apologize for calling her ma'am, and give her coffee quickly. It's the only way she'll stop."

"I'M NOT CRAZY DICKFACE!" He sighed. "I didn't say you were, Sapphire."

"IT WAS IMPLIED!"

"No, it wasn't. Tell you what, I'll let you throw the bad coffee at demon-todd." Her eyes lit up. "Really?" He nodded "Go ahead." She took the lid off and threw it at his face. "AH, HOT COFFEE! I'LL REPORT YOU FOR WORKER ABUSE!"

"Here's your coffee, miss." She huffed. "Finally, someone who knows what they're doing."

"Um, did you burn his face?" She blinked innocently. "No, of course not. I would never hurt anyone. I'm strictly against violence."

"Uh, weren't you yelling at him and your boyfriend, and teaching little children curse words?"

"Thank you for the coffee, we'll be going now. EVERYBODY, LET'S GO." We all ran out of the store and down several blocks until we had distanced ourselves enough from the coffee shop.

"Well, that was...an adventure" Leo said. Snow seemed completly unfazed.

"So, Blade, your dream." She prompted.

That brought me back to my senses. "Oh, yeah. Um, well, the first bit started as a nightmare. The second part was the Athena, Ares, and Hermes arguing. My dad was blaming Hermes' kids for his spear and shield, his symbol of power, being stolen. There is a quest of Romans trying to find it. Frank Zhang, Nico's sister Hazel Levesque, and that Dakota kid who always has kool-aid on his face. They havn't been successful yet, and Ares thinks that one of Hermes' children took it. He's threatening to kill all of Hermes' offspring if it's not returned."

Snow rolled her eyes. "Idiot. How will he ever get it back if the ones who have it are destroyed. What he needs is some good old-fashioned torture-"

"That's cruel." Annabeth said. She straightend. "Not after the shit they do to people."

"You're just still upset about when they-"

"SHUT UP, NOW." Nico slumped. "Okay, sorry."

"Okay, before we were interupted by Snow's inasnity-" Nico rose. "Do NOT ever call her crazy."

"Yeah, sorry. Anyway, they were arguing and Annabeth's mom was serving as kind of the refferee, trying to control their anger. They kept saying that they were having sex with their moms... anyway at the end, they were just sword fighting, and then it shifted. Caspia, do you remember ever meeting your Dad?"

She thought for a minute. "Yes, I think when I was about six years old, Poseidon came and talked to Lizzie, he had a tan, green eyes, and black hair-"

"Sounds like Dad." Percy interupted

"Yes, but the more memorable part, was what Lizzie said. She said that he was a 'bad man' And seemed very upset that he had left us. After that we rented Cinderella and went over to my Uncle Jimmy's house and stayed there for a while. When I turned 14, she had had enough of me seeing the monsters, and sent me to the mental hospital."

I considered telling her the other part. "Poseidon...he also told Lizzie to send you to Clear Creek. She must have resisted for a while, probably out of anger, but I suppose she figured out in time he was right. The director was a son of Zeus, and they thought he could protect you."

She wheeled. "Wait, he's the reason I was sent there. He's the reason my future was destroyed? Did he have ANY IDEA what that did to me? Never being recognized for my intelligence, just being thought of as 'that crazy girl who sees monsters' I thought he was on my side! I thought he cared about me!"

Percy wrapped his arm around her. "He does care about you. He sent you there to protect you." She blinked tears out of her eyes. "Okay," She said, though it was clear she didn't believe it. "Let's find Alcatraz."