Chapter Ten - Tyson

When we reached Manhattan, I decided to take Tyson into Central Park while we waited for our moms to show up - we didn't want to risk giving Jerry and Lydia a heart attack by bringing a young cyclops to their doorstep. Andromeda and Andros both volunteered to let their grandparents know where we were so they wouldn't worry, and so that their mom would know where to find us, but neither seemed too willing to leave me and Percy alone with Tyson. In the end, Andros and Percy were sent to deliver the news while Andromeda stayed behind with me - glaring daggers at Tyson while absently toying with the spare knife that she normally carried concealed on her person. Thankfully, Tyson seemed more interested in the park itself than us.

"Hey, Tyson?" I called, making a snap decision. "You want to go check out the nearby playground? Does that sound like fun?"

"Yes!" His eye lit up with excitement. "It does sound like fun!"

"Cool," I grinned. "I'll race you down the slide, then."

"Okay!" Laughing, the young cyclops ran off toward the playground.

I turned to Andromeda; "You know he's basically harmless, right?"

"He's a monster," she said. "None of them are harmless."

"If he was a threat, do you really think Percy's dad would have sent him to us?" I countered. "Do you think he would have claimed him like he did?"

"Penny, your brother is great," Andromeda said. "But mythologically speaking, he's the exception when it comes to children of Poseidon. The majority of them were some of the biggest monsters and villains in the old stories."

"Tyson's just a kid," I argued. "A really big kid, sure. But he clearly doesn't mean any harm."

"Come on, big sister!" Tyson called, getting my attention. I turned to see he'd already climbed to the top of the big slide. "I am winning!"

"Just give him a chance," I said. "Please?"

"This is me giving him a chance," Andromeda replied. "Otherwise, he'd be dust beneath our heels already."

"He saved me from that sphinx at the library," I said.

"After you got between it and him," she pointed out.

"Still, I..."

"Are you coming?" Tyson called, cutting off my response.

"Be right there," I called back. Then, sparing Andromeda one last look, turned and headed to the playground.

Our moms showed up to the park almost an hour later. To say they were shocked to see a cyclops hanging out with us would be like saying Newtown Creek smelled awful. Technically true, but still grossly understated.

"...and so we decided it was best to wait here, instead," I said, briefly explaining to the two of them who Tyson was and why we were waiting at the park instead of the Brownstone.

Desi said nothing for a moment, seeming to digest the information I'd just given her, before she spoke up with the thickest New York accent I'd ever heard; "Gods above, you're gonna send me to the church."

I blinked; "I'm not religious?" A sudden smacking sound drew my attention back to Andromeda and her brother to see both of them palming their own faces. "What?"

"Your daughter brings home a cyclops and asks 'what'?" Desi said, turning to my mom. "I can't even with this one. How do you do it, Sal?"

"I haven't heard you break out the thick accent since our college days," mom said, suppressing a snort of amusement.

"Not the point!" Desi protested.

"No, I suppose not," mom agreed, turning back to me. "So, you said something about Poseidon being involved in this?"

"That's what Tyson said," I nodded. "He prayed and his dad sent him to find us."

"Well, that's just..." Desi threw her hands up in the air.

"I figure he can sleep in Percy's room," I continued. "I'll even lend my spare cot until we can set him up with a bed of his own."

"Why my room?" Percy asked.

"Well, he can't sleep in mine," I said. "Besides, you're both boys. We don't ask Hunter to sleep in your room for the same reason."

"We don't ask Hunter to sleep in my room because she'd murder me in my sleep and make it look like natural causes," Percy argued.

I opened my mouth to disagree, then closed it. He was probably right.

"We'll figure it out," mom spoke up, cutting off any argument. "Dee, thank your parents again for taking them in for the weekend. I really am grateful. Percy, Penny, let's get going. And, uh, Tyson? You too."

"Okay!" Tyson beamed.

"Here we are," I said as Tyson walked through the front door of mom's apartment. "Home sweet home."

"Since it's so late, I'm thinking we'll just order something for dinner," mom said.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I can probably whip something together pretty quickly. I still have to make something for tomorrow's lunch anyway."

"Yeah, I'm sure," mom said, sparing a glance at the towering cyclops next to me. "Besides, it's starting to get late. I'm sure you have homework that still needs to be done."

"Nope," I grinned, pulling out my Lotus card and handing it over. "Already done during final period."

"You're going to get in trouble," Percy said. "Again."

"I'll be fine," I shrugged. "Besides, all Mr. Saunders has us doing in class right now is scribbling in our sketchbooks."

Percy opened his mouth to say something, then seemingly thought better of it, and instead turned to mom and asked; "Can we get pizza?"

"If we're getting John's, I'd like my usual," I said before turning to Tyson. "What about you, big guy? Do you have any preferences?"

"No," he shook his head. "I never had pizza before."

"Never?!" I gasped. Even when I was living on the streets, I'd occasionally had a slice. It was my gods-given right as a New Yorker. I would not see my new little brother denied his. "We're fixing that tonight. Mom, order one of everything."

"We're not going to make the people at John's hate us," mom said, shaking her head. "I don't think they'd even fulfill that kind of order over the phone. But, I'll see what I can do."

As it turns out, I may have severely underestimated the logistics of living with a cyclops. If the amount of food that the two of us managed to consume in a single sitting was anything to go by, we'd probably bankrupt a small nation in just over a month. Thankfully, between the Lotus card and my subscription to Olympus Fresh Delivery, that wasn't too much of a concern. I really hoped that the card didn't vanish anytime soon.

On the other hand, it turned out that Percy wouldn't have to share a bedroom after all. Mom had pulled out some foldable space dividers she'd had in storage while we waited for the delivery, and set them up in the dining room to create a make-shift third room. We'd have to get Tyson an actual bed eventually, but in the meantime I volunteered to let him sleep on the spare cot I usually pulled out whenever I had friends over - though with Hunter it mostly ended up being for show as she usually ended up in my bed before morning came anyway.

"We should probably figure out what we're going to do with Tyson going forward," I said.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

"Well," I gestured vaguely. "I mean, what is he going to do during the day while we're at school?"

"He'll be taking classes just like us," Percy said, speaking slowly as if I was the one having difficulty following along.

"But, he can't go to middle school," I argued, looking to mom for support. "He's too young. Right?"

Was I being too harsh? Maybe. The truth was, I just wanted to keep Tyson as far away from Cleo Mossinger as possible. He was a good kid, but he had no filter - and that girl was sharp. Not to mention she'd immediately spot the giant single eye in the middle of his forehead marking him as inhuman.

"I'll be the first to admit that I don't know much, if anything, about the developmental levels of mythological beings," Mom said.

"It's okay," Tyson said, swallowing a mouthful of cheese sticks. "I can do the school work."

"Besides, he's already technically enrolled," Percy pointed out.

"That was the mist," I argued. "Just like with Mrs. Dodds. I'm sure it covered up when you vaporized her at the museum."

Percy winced, then looked at me strangely; "I didn't tell you about that."

"Saw it in a dream," I said. "It's the big reason I was even at the camp when you showed up. I was waiting for you."

"Oh."

"Yeah," I shrugged. "Anyway, back to Tyson."

"Why don't we ask Tyson what he wants to do?" Mom suggested, cutting off the argument.

"I want to go to school with big brother and sister," Tyson said, smiling.

Well, damn. I sighed, and started digging around in my backpack to pull out the pieces of my broken auton. If nothing else went my way tonight, I would at least make some progress on repairing it.

"Why are you so against Tyson coming to school with us?" Percy asked.

"Cleo," I said, simply.

"Oh."

"She's not going to be fooled by the Mist, and I already told her all about how dangerous monsters are," I continued. "I didn't specify Greek monsters, but between the satyrs and Medusa that she already encountered, I don't think there's too much of a leap of logic. What's she going to say when we show up tomorrow with a cyclops little brother? Andromeda is going to kick my ass, that's for sure."

"Isn't Andromeda your friend?" Tyson asked, clearly confused.

"It's a figure of speech," I said. "But, in this case that doesn't matter. Hell, one of my other friends shot me with her bow."

"What?!" Percy and Mom both asked.

"Oh, here it is!" I said, pulling the ziploc baggy full of broken auton out of the backpack and ignoring the flurry of follow up questions. "I'm going to my room to put this back together."

"Can I help?" Tyson asked, following me.

My first instinct was to tell him no. He was huge and his massive hands would usually not be good for delicate work like what I needed to do. But, then I remembered how cyclopes were regarded as excellent craftsmen in the myths - capable of a level of work and fine detail that even modern machines couldn't match.

"Sure," I said. "Sounds good."

As it turns out, my instincts were spot on. It turned out that Tyson had a manual dexterity and a singular eye for detail that would make even my other brother Charlie Beckendorf take notice. With only the slightest input from me, he managed to completely repair the smashed spider auton in under an hour. And best of all, there were no spare parts left lying around!

"Hey, thanks Tyson," I said, adjusting the inert auton into a cool looking battle pose. Unfortunately, without knowing how any of the original enchantments were laid, it was basically a really cool looking paper weight. "You're really good at this sort of stuff, aren't you?"

"I guess so," Tyson said, smiling. "It was really fun."

"How would you like to learn enchanting with me?" I asked.

"Really?" His eye lit up with hope. "You can enchant?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "The first thing I enchanted was basically a refrigerator in a bag, and I did it in a single evening on a picnic table in Medusa's lair. I have some books that can get you started on the theory, and then we can start going over some of the practical stuff after. Sound good?"

I was expected a verbal response. Maybe even a rapid head nodding. Instead, Tyson cleared the distance between us in a single bound and scooped me into a squeezing tight bear hug that left my bones creaking and my lungs gasping for air. What had I gotten myself into?