[Percy's POV]
"Tell me when it's over," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to us so we couldn't fall, but still Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.
"Everything's fine," I promised. "Are... are we very high?"
I looked down. Below us, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. I stretched out my foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks. "Nah," I said. "Not that high."
"We are in the Sierras.'" Zoe yelled. She, Y/N, and Grover were hanging from the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."
"Hey, hey, Frisco!" our angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"
"Oh, man," the other angel said. "I am so there!"
"You guys have visited San Francisco?" I asked.
"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And-"
"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man."
"Oh, right." If bronze statues could blush, I swear Hank did. "Back to flying." We sped up, so I could tell the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then we were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways. Grover played his pipes to pass the time.
Zoe got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as we flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store. And we passed dozens of them. She would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour. Y/N held her arrows and called out more signs as he saw them. Zoe was smiling at a joke he told.
Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying. "You did good back there," I told her. "Zeus listened." It was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes closed.
"Maybe," she said, leaning over to look at Y/N who was telling a smirking Zoe something. "How did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you."
He told us about this weird sounding mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who seemed to have no trouble seeing through the mist. Turns out, I ran into her too. Quite literally, I ran into her.
She was just standing there in the middle of the hallway, and I almost impaled her. Well, I would have if she wasn't mortal. I explained that to the others, but Thalia just nodded and said, "Some mortals are like that," she said. "Nobody knows why."
Suddenly I flashed on something I'd never considered.
My mom was like that. She had seen the Minotaur on Half-Blood Hill and known exactly what it was. She hadn't been surprised at all last year when I'd told her my friend Tyson was really a Cyclops. Maybe she'd known all along. No wonder she'd been so scared for me as I was growing up. She saw through the Mist even better than I did.
"The girl was a bit annoying." Y/N said, rolling his eyes. "But I'm glad I didn't cut her in half. Wouldn't want that on my permanent record." Thalia nodded, considering. "Must be nice to be a regular mortal." She said that as if she'd given it a lot of thought.
***
"Where do you guys want to land?" Hank asked, waking me up from a nap. I looked down and said, "Whoa."
I'd seen San Francisco in pictures before, but never in real life. It was probably the most beautiful city I'd ever seen: kind of like a smaller, cleaner Manhattan, if Manhattan had been surrounded by green hills and fog.
There was a huge bay and ships, islands and sailboats, and the Golden Gate Bridge sticking up out of the fog. I felt like I should take a picture or something. 'Greetings from Frisco. Haven't Died Yet. Wish You Were Here.' and send it to my mom.
"There," Zoe suggested. "By the Embarcadero Building."
"Good thinking," Chuck said. "Me and Hank can blend in with the pigeons." We all looked at him.
"Kidding," he said. "Sheesh, can't statues have a sense of humor?" As it turned out, there wasn't much need to blend in. It was early morning and not many people were around. We freaked out a homeless guy on the ferry dock when we landed. He screamed when he saw Hank and Chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from Mars.
We said our good-byes to the angels, who flew off to party with their statue friends. That's when I realized I had no idea what we were going to do next. We'd made it to the West Coast. Artemis was here somewhere. Annabeth too, hopefully.
But I had no idea how to find them, and tomorrow was the winter solstice. Nor did I have any clue what monster Artemis had been hunting. It was supposed to find us on the quest. It was supposed to "show the trail," but it never had. Now we were stuck on the ferry dock with not much money, no friends, and no luck.
After a brief discussion, we agreed that we needed to figure out just what this mystery monster was. "But how?" I asked. Y/N's head darted up. "Nereus." he said, barely above a whisper. "What?" I asked. Grover looked at us in realization. "Didn't Apollo tell you about him?" Y/N nodded, and that reminded me.
"I'm supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows? But how do I find him?" Zoe made a face. "Old Nereus, eh?"
"You know him?" Thalia asked. "My mother was a sea goddess. Yes, I know him. Unfortunately, he is never very hard to find. Just follow the smell."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Come," she said without enthusiasm. "I will show thee."
***
I knew I was in trouble when we stopped at the Goodwill drop box. Five minutes later, Zoe had me outfitted in a ragged flannel shirt and jeans three sizes too big, bright red sneakers, and a floppy rainbow hat.
"Oh, yeah," Grover said, trying not to burst out laughing, "you look completely inconspicuous now."
Zoe nodded with satisfaction. "A typical male vagrant." Y/N chuckled. "Alright, you're getting better at being more modern with your words. But vagrant is still a bit too far out." Zoe smirked. "Perhaps bum would be better?" Y/N nodded. "Now that's more like it. You're welcome, Percy." he flashed me a thumbs up.
"Thanks a lot," I grumbled. "Why am I doing this again?"
"I told thee. To blend in."
"Just pure regression with this, every sentence. A step forward. And seven back." Y/N shook his head. Zoe punched him in the shoulder.
She led the way back down to the waterfront. After a long time spent searching the docks, Zoe finally stopped in her tracks. She pointed down a pier where a bunch of homeless guys were huddled together in blankets, waiting for the soup kitchen to open for lunch.
"He will be down there somewhere," Zoe said. "He never travels very far from the water. He likes to sun himself during the day."
"How do I know which one is him?"
"Sneak up," she said. "Act homeless. You will know him. He will smell... different."
"Great." I didn't want to ask for particulars. "And once I find him?"
"Grab him," she said. "And hold on. He will try anything to get rid of thee. Whatever he does, do not let go. Force him to tell thee about the monster."
"We've got your back," Thalia said. She picked something off the back of my shirt. A big clump of fuzz that came from who-knows-where. "Eww. On second thought... I don't want your back. But we'll be rooting for you." Grover gave me a big thumbs-up. Y/N had his nose plugged, shaking his head, indicating that there wasn't a good chance he'd come in after me if needed.
I grumbled how nice it was to have super-powerful friends. Then I headed toward the dock. I pulled my hat down and stumbled like I was about to pass out, which wasn't hard considering how tired I was. I passed our homeless friend from the Embarcadero, who was still trying to warn the other guys about the metal angels from Mars.
He didn't smell good, but he didn't smell... different. I kept walking. A couple of grimy dudes with plastic grocery bags for hats checked me out as I came close.
"Beat it, kid!" one of them muttered.
I moved away. They smelled pretty bad, but just regular old bad. Nothing unusual. There was a lady with a bunch of plastic flamingos sticking out of a shopping cart. She glared at me like I was going to steal her birds.
At the end of the pier, a guy who looked about a million years old was passed out in a patch of sunlight. He wore pajamas and a fuzzy bathrobe that probably used to be white. He was fat, with a white beard that had turned yellow, kind of like Santa Claus, if Santa had been rolled out of bed and dragged through a landfill.
And his smell?
As I got closer, I froze. He smelled bad, all right. But ocean bad. Like hot seaweed and dead fish and brine. If the ocean had an ugly side... this guy was it. I tried not to gag as I sat down near him like I was tired.
Santa opened one eye curiously. I could feel him staring at me, but I didn't look. I muttered something about stupid school and stupid parents, figuring that might sound reasonable.
Santa Claus went back to sleep.
I tensed. I knew this was going to look strange. I didn't know how the other homeless people would react. But I jumped Santa Claus.
"Ahhhhh!" he screamed. I meant to grab him, but he seemed to grab me instead. It was as if he'd never been asleep at all. He certainly didn't act like a weak old man. He had a grip like steel. "Help me!" he screamed as he squeezed me to death.
"That's a crime!" one of the other homeless guys yelled. "Kid rolling an old man like that!" I rolled, all right. Straight down the pier until my head slammed into a post. I was dazed for a second, and Nereus's grip slackened. He was making a break for it. Before he could, I regained my senses and tackled him from behind.
"I don't have any money!" He tried to get up and run, but I locked my arms around his chest. His rotten fish smell was awful, but I held on. "I don't want money," I said as he fought. "I'm a half-blood! I want information.'"
That just made him struggle harder. "Heroes! Why do you always pick on me?"
"Because you know everything!"
He growled and tried to shake me off his back. It was like holding on to a roller coaster. He thrashed around, making it impossible for me to keep on my feet, but I gritted my teeth and squeezed tighter. We staggered toward the edge of the pier and I got an idea.
"Oh, no!" I said. "Not the water!"
The plan worked. Immediately, Nereus yelled in triumph and jumped off the edge. Together, we plunged into San Francisco Bay. He must've been surprised when I tightened my grip, the ocean filling me with extra strength. But Nereus had a few tricks left, too. He changed shape until I was holding a sleek black seal.
I've heard people make jokes about trying to hold a greased pig, but I'm telling you, holding on to a seal in the water is harder. Nereus plunged straight down, wriggling and thrashing and spiraling through the dark water. If I hadn't been Poseidon's son, there's no way I could've stayed with him.
Nereus spun and expanded, turning into a killer whale, but I grabbed his dorsal fin as he burst out of the water.
A whole bunch of tourists went, "Whoa!"
I managed to wave at the crowd. "Yeah, we do this every day here in San Francisco." Nereus plunged into the water and turned into a slimy eel. I started to tie him into a knot until he realized what was going on and changed back to human form. "Why won't you drown?" he wailed, pummeling me with his fists.
"I'm Poseidon's son," I said.
"Curse that upstart! I was here first!"
Finally he collapsed on the edge of the boat dock. Above us was one of those tourist piers lined with shops, like a mall on water. Nereus was heaving and gasping. I was feeling great. I could've gone on all day, but I didn't tell him that. I wanted him to feel like he'd put up a good fight.
My friends ran down the steps from the pier.
"You got him!" Zoe said. "You don't have to sound so amazed," I said. "Hit him over the head! That usually works!" Y/N shouted, with his nose still plugged. Nereus moaned. "Oh, wonderful. An audience for my humiliation! The normal deal, I suppose? You'll let me go if I answer your question?"
"I've got more than one question," I said. "Only one question per capture! That's the rule." I looked at my friends.
This wasn't good. I needed to find Artemis, and I needed to figure out what the doomsday creature was. And see if Annabeth was still alive. How could I ask that all in one question?
A voice inside me was screaming. Zoe would want me to ask about Artemis, but Chiron had told us the monster was even more important. I guarantee if Y/N were in this position, he would have never hesitated about asking for Annabeth. That's why he's here anyway. But I knew what I had to do.
I sighed. "All right, Nereus. Tell me where to find this terrible monster that could bring an end to the gods. The one Artemis was hunting." The Old Man of the Sea smiled, showing off his mossy green teeth. "Oh, that's too easy," he said evilly. "He's right there."
Nereus pointed to the water at my feet. "Where?" I said. "The deal is complete!" Nereus gloated. With a pop, he turned into a goldfish and did a backflip into the sea. "You tricked me!" I yelled.
"Wait." Thalia's eyes widened. "What is that?"
"MOOOOOOOO!"
I looked down, and there was my friend, the cow serpent, swimming next to the dock. She nudged my shoe and gave me sad brown eyes. "Ah, Bessie," I said. "Not now." Y/N sighed. "Not this thing again."
"Mooo!"
Grover gasped. "He says his name isn't Bessie."
"You can understand her... er, him?"
Grover nodded. "It's a very old form of animal speech. But he says his name is the Ophiotaurus."
"The Ophi-what?"
"It means serpent bull in Greek," Thalia said. Y/N snickered. "That's a little on the nose. But what's it doing here?"
"Moooooooo!"
"He says Percy is his protector," Grover announced. "And he and his friends are running from the bad people. He says they are close."
I was wondering how he got all that out of a single moooooo. "Wait," Zoe said, looking at me. "You know this cow?"
I was feeling impatient, but I told them the story. Thalia shook her head in disbelief. "And you just forgot to mention this before?"
"Well... yeah." It seemed silly, now that she said it, but things had been happening so fast. Bessie, the Ophiotaurus, seemed like a minor detail. "I am a fool," Zoe said suddenly. "I know this story!"
"What story?"
"From the War of the Titans," she said. "My... My father told me this tale, thousands of years ago. This is the beast we are looking for."
"Bessie?" I looked down at the bull serpent. "But... he's too cute. He couldn't destroy the world." Y/N said, "Yeah, have you ever heard the phrase appearances can be deceiving?" If I weren't in the water, he'd have surely shoved me back in.
"That is how we were wrong," Zoe said. "We've been anticipating a huge dangerous monster, but the Ophiotaurus does not bring down the gods that way. He must be sacrificed."
"MMMM," Bessie lowed.
"I don't think he likes the S-word," Grover said. I patted Bessie on the head, trying to calm him down. He let me scratch his ear, but he was trembling. "How could anyone hurt him?" I said. "He's harmless."
Zoe nodded. "But there is power in killing innocence. Terrible power. The Fates ordained a prophecy eons ago, when this creature was born. They said that whoever killed the Ophiotaurus and sacrificed its entrails to fire would have the power to destroy the gods."
"MMMMMM!"
"Um," Grover said. "Maybe we could avoid talking about entrails, too." Thalia stared at the cow serpent with wonder. "The power to destroy the gods... how? I mean, what would happen?"
"No one knows," Zoe said. "The first time, during the Titan war, the Ophiotaurus was in fact slain by a giant ally of the Titans, but thy father, Zeus, sent an eagle to snatch the entrails away before they could be tossed into the fire. It was a close call. Now, after three thousand years, the Ophiotaurus is reborn."
"Lucky us." Y/N grumbled. "Three thousand years apart, and it just has to happen when we're in the thick of it! Of course!" He paced around the dock, muttering an assortment of swear words. Thalia sat down on the dock. She stretched out her hand. Bessie went right to her. Thalia placed her hand on his head. Bessie shivered.
Thalia's expression bothered me. She almost looked... hungry.
"We have to protect him," I told her. "If Luke gets hold of him-"
"Luke wouldn't hesitate," Thalia muttered. "The power to overthrow Olympus. That's... that's huge."
"Yes, it is, my dear," said a man's voice in a heavy French accent. "And it is a power you shall unleash."
The Ophiotaurus made a whimpering sound and submerged. I looked up. We'd been so busy talking, we'd allowed ourselves to be ambushed. Standing behind us, his two-color eyes gleaming wickedly, was Dr. Thorn, the manticore himself.
[Y/N's POV]
"This is just pairrr-fect," the manticore gloated.
He was wearing a ratty black trench coat over his Westover Hall uniform, which was torn and stained. His military haircut had grown out spiky and greasy. He hadn't shaved recently, so his face was covered in silver stubble. Basically he didn't look much better than the guys down at the soup kitchen.
"Long ago, the gods banished me to Persia," the manticore said. "I was forced to scrounge for food on the edges of the world, hiding in forests, devouring insignificant human farmers for my meals. I never got to fight any great heroes. I was not feared and admired in the old stories! But now that will change. The Titans shall honor me, and I shall feast on the flesh of half-bloods!"
On either side of him stood two armed security guys, some of the mortal mercenaries I'd seen in D.C. Two more stood on the next boat dock over, just in case we tried to escape that way. There were tourists all around. Walking down the waterfront, shopping at the pier above us. But I knew that wouldn't stop the manticore from acting.
"Where are the skeleton warriors?" I asked, looking between his multi-colored eyes, not blinking, never faltering. I wasn't scared of this thing.
He sneered. "I do not need those foolish undead! The General thinks I am worthless? He will change his mind when I defeat you myself! I will take that flimsy lieutenant's position from right under him!"
I drew my sword, and looked back at Percy, who was darting his eyes between the squadron in front of us, and the ophiotaurus that had just submerged. "We've beaten you once. We can do it again."
The manticore scoffed. "Beaten me. He says. Barely. And with a goddess on your side. Pah! That goddess is pre-occupied at the moment. There will be no help for you puny godlings now."
Zoe notched an arrow and aimed it straight at the manticore's head. The guards on either side of us raised their guns. "Zoe. Hold your fire." I told her, still trying to come up with a plan.
Now, you might think I'm this great battle strategist, but I'm not. I may be improving at that, but most of my success in fights came from sheer dumb luck, or Annabeth's fantastic planning. Neither of which I could count on at the moment.
The manticore smiled. "The boy is right, Zoe Nightshade. Put away your bow. It would be a shame to kill you before you witnessed Thalia's great victory."
"What are you talking about?" Thalia growled. She had her shield and spear ready. "Surely it is clear," the manticore said. "This is your moment. This is why Lord Kronos brought you back to life. You will sacrifice the Ophiotaurus. You will bring its entrails to the sacred fire on the mountain. You will gain unlimited power. And for your sixteenth birthday, you will overthrow Olympus."
No one spoke. It made ironically bad levels of sense. Thalia would turn sixteen in just two days. Not to mention that she was a child of the big three, and here she was, with the chance to fulfill the great prophecy. A choice that could destroy the gods here and now.
The end of the world as we knew it could happen right this second. What worried me, was how Thalia hadn't yet told them off about this. She looked stunned. Like nothing could have prepared her for this moment.
"You know it is the right choice," the manticore told her. "Your friend Luke recognized it. You shall be reunited with him. You shall rule this world together under the auspices of the Titans. Your father abandoned you, Thalia. He cares nothing for you. And now you shall gain power over him. Crush the Olympians underfoot, as they deserve. Call the beast! It will come to you. Use your spear."
"Hey, lightning rod! Snap out of it!" I shouted. Thalia turned and looked dumbstruck. The same face she held when she woke up that day on Half blood hill. "I... I don't-" she stammered, her voice laced with uncertainty. "Your dad hasn't been a complete piece. He had the guardians at the dam move. He turned you into a tree so you wouldn't die! Please, don't do this."
Her knuckles went pale around the shaft of her spear. I looked at Percy, then at Grover. He put two and two together and whipped out his pipes, playing some melody I didn't know. But it caused just enough of a distraction to get it going. The manticore yelled, "Stop him!"
The guards had been targeting Zoe, and before they could figure out that the kid with the pipes was the bigger problem, the wooden planks at their feet sprouted new branches and tangled their legs. Zoe let loose two quick arrows that exploded at their feet in clouds of sulfurous yellow smoke.
Fart arrows!
I started breathing through my mouth. Problem with that is that I could taste the stench. Thorn launched a couple of spikes our way, and in my hurry, I drew blackout, and cut the spike in half, ducking under another, before going airborne in Thorn's direction. I kicked the manticore in the side of the head, sending him tumbling nearly off the dock and into the water. I hurried back toward the edge of the dock.
"Grover, tell that cow thing to stay under. Deep underwater!" Grover started mooing in translation. "The cow thing..." Thalia muttered, still in a daze. I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her up the stairs as we all ran away from the pier. We dashed around a corner as the manticore came to his senses and shouted "Get them!" in our direction.
We scrambled to the end of the pier. We hid behind a little kiosk filled with souvenir crystals. Wind chimes and dream catchers and stuff like that, glittering in the sunlight. There was a water fountain next to us. Down below, a bunch of sea lions were sunning themselves on the rocks.
The whole of San Francisco Bay spread out before us: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, and the green hills and fog beyond that to the north. A picture-perfect moment, except for the fact that we were about to die and the world was going to end.
"Come on, Thalia. Help me out here!" I snapped my fingers in front of her face, doing nothing, as she continued to mutter in a haze. "Snap out of it!" I clapped my hands together loudly, causing the daughter of Zeus to jump in surprise. She suddenly became more aware of where we were.
"Go over the side!" Zoe told Percy. "You can escape in the sea, Percy. Call on thy father for help. Maybe you can save the Ophiotaurus." I went to push him over the edge, so maybe he could save us with one of his vintage 'Percy moments' but he shoved my hands away and said, "I won't leave you guys. We fight together."
"That's a nice sentiment, Percy, but we're gonna die together if you stay here!" I shouted, still trying to force him over the pier. "You have to get word to camp!" Grover said. "At least let them know what's going on!"
"Get word to camp," he muttered. "Good idea." Percy uncapped Riptide and slashed off the top of the water fountain. Water burst out of the busted pipe and sprayed all over us. "What is wrong with you?!" I shouted, blocking my eyes from being drenched.
Thalia gasped as the water hit her. "Are you crazy?" she asked. But Grover seemed to understand something. He was fishing around in his pockets and threw a golden drachma into the rainbows created by the mist and yelled, "O goddess, accept my offering!"
The mist rippled. Then it hit me. That's how we'd get word to camp. "Camp half blood!" Grover shouted, in tired relief.
And there, shimmering in the Mist right next to us, was the last person I wanted to see: Mr. D, wearing his leopard-skin jogging suit and rummaging through the refrigerator. He looked up lazily. "Do you mind?"
"Where's Chiron!?" I shouted. "How rude." Mr. D took a swig from a jug of grape juice. "Is that how you say hello?"
I groaned, and tilted my head in annoyance. "Hello, Mr D." I corrected. "Where's Chiron?! We're gonna die!"
Mr D took a moment to consider that. I wanted to shout at the god to move his lazy ass and hurry up, but that would certainly not help our case. Behind us, footsteps and shouting. The manticore's troops were closing in.
"Gonna die," Mr. D mused. "How exciting. I'm afraid Chiron isn't here. Would you like me to take a message?" I sighed roughly. "We're doomed." I said to the others. Thalia gripped her spear. She looked like her old angry self again. "Then we'll die fighting."
"How noble," Mr. D said, stifling a yawn. "So what is the problem, exactly?" I didn't see that it would make any difference, but I told him about the Ophiotaurus.
"Mmm." He studied the contents of the fridge. "So that's it. I see." I sighed. "You really don't care, do you?" I groaned. I wasn't even mad. I was just tired. I needed a nap.
"Let's see. I think I'm in the mood for pizza tonight." the god said.
The manticore screamed, "There!" And we were surrounded. Two of the guards stood behind him. The other two appeared on the roofs of the pier shops above us. The manticore threw off his coat and transformed into his true self, his lion claws extended and his spiky tail bristling with poison barbs.
"Excellent," he said. He glanced at the apparition in the mist and snorted. "Alone, without any real help. Wonderful."
"You could ask for help," Mr. D murmured to me, as if this were an amusing thought. "You could say please."
I drew blackout. Zoe readied her arrows. Grover lifted his pipes. Percy summoned riptide. Thalia raised her shield, and I noticed a tear running down her cheek. Suddenly it occurred to me: this had happened before.
She'd been cornered with her friends by a bunch of monsters already. That was the night she saved my life. She'd given her life for mine, Luke's, and Annabeth's. I couldn't let that happen again. Not to her. She deserved to be the one saved this time.
"Please, Mr. D," I muttered. "Help." I begged. Nothing happened. I felt sick. The manticore grinned. "Spare the daughter of Zeus. She will join us soon enough. Kill the others."
"I hope this makes up for something, Thalia." She looked at me confusedly as the army in front of us raised their guns. I bobbed on the balls of my feet, working up the courage to actually do this. I took a deep breath.
"Run." I told my friends and drew my other sword as well, charging toward the small militia bearing down on us. They tried to grab my arms and stop me, but I eluded their grasp.
I had absolutely no plan. Not one. Besides to cause enough chaos to give the others a chance.
I ducked under gunfire, jabbing a pair of mortals over the head with the pommels of my blades. I sliced through one of the guns, before kicking the mortal down off the pier, into the water.
I fell onto a knee, battering back one of the mortals that were still up. I threw their weapon to the side and elbowed him in the neck. They went down in a heap.
Thorn was bearing down on me, swinging his massive tail at my head. He was going for the kill, but on instinct alone, I ducked under, and without even looking, deflected a spike headed my way. Thorn kept battling, swinging relentlessly, and I could only dodge for so long. I spun all over the dock, dipping and diving away from the sharp, poisonous objects.
That was when I realized.
Thorn wasn't trying to kill me. He was getting me alone. I had been sectioned off, and was at his mercy.
I heard another group of rounds get chambered, and with a terrified gasp from my friends, I readied for the end.
Then something weird happened. It felt like all the blood had rushed from my head, and made me extremely light headed. Like I stood up way too quickly, or was extremely drunk.
The men raised their guns, and something strange happened. You know how you feel when you hold your breath a bit too long? There was a rush like that all around me, and a sound like a huge sigh. The sunlight tinged with purple. I smelled grapes and something more sour...
Wine
SNAP!
It was the sound of many minds breaking at the same time. The sound of madness. One guard put his pistol between his teeth like it was a bone and ran around on all fours. Two others dropped their guns and started waltzing with each other. The fourth began doing what looked like an Irish clogging dance. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so terrifying.
"No!" screamed the manticore. "I will deal with you myself!" His tail bristled, but the planks under his paws erupted into grape vines, which immediately began wrapping around the monster's body, sprouting new leaves and clusters of green baby grapes that ripened in seconds as the manticore shrieked, until he was engulfed in a huge mass of vines, leaves, and full clusters of purple grapes.
Finally the grapes stopped shivering, and I had a feeling that somewhere inside there, the manticore was no more.
"Well," said Dionysus, closing his refrigerator. "That was fun."
We stared at him, horrified at just what the camp director could do. Percy stammered. "That... How could you... How did you-" he was cut off. "Such gratitude," Dionysus muttered. "The mortals will come out of it. Too much explaining to do if I made their condition permanent. I hate writing reports to Father."
He stared resentfully at Thalia. "I hope you learned your lesson, girl. It isn't easy to resist power, is it?"
Thalia blushed as if she were ashamed. "Mr. D," Grover said in amazement. "You... you saved us."
"Mmm. Don't make me regret it, satyr. Now get going. I've bought you a few hours at most."
"The Ophiotaurus," Percy said. "Can you get it to camp?"
Mr. D sniffed. "I do not transport livestock. That's your problem."
"But where do we go?"
Dionysus looked at Zoe. "Oh, I think the huntress knows. You must enter at sunset today, you know, or all is lost. Now good-bye. My pizza is waiting."
"Mr. D," I said.
He raised his eyebrow. "Thank you." I said, out of breath. The god looked genuinely pleased for a moment, before scowling again and saying, "Well, get a move on!" and waving his hand, the image disappearing from the mist in front of us.
All around us, the manticore's minions were still acting completely nuts. One of them had found our friend, a homeless guy, and they were having a serious conversation about metal angels from Mars. Several other guards were harassing the tourists, making animal noises and trying to steal their shoes.
I looked at Zoe. "What did he mean... 'You know where to go'?"
Her face was the color of the fog. She pointed across the bay, past the Golden Gate. In the distance, a single mountain rose up above the cloud layer.
"The garden of my sisters," she said. "I must go home."