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28. Gaea
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Lorna woke up at a table at a sidewalk cafe.
It was a sunny morning. The air was brisk but not unpleasant for sitting outside. At the other tables, a mix of bicyclists, business people, and college kids sat chatting and drinking coffee. She could smell eucalyptus trees. Lots of foot traffic passed in front of quaint little shops. The street was lined with bottle-brush trees and blooming azaleas as if winter was a foreign concept. In other words: she was in California. Her friends sat in chairs around her—all of them with their hands calmly folded across their chests, dozing pleasantly.
And they all had new clothes on. Lorna looked down at her own outfit and gasped.
"Holy crap! Who changed me?" Lorna yelled.
Piper woke up and yelled, "Mother!"
Jason flinched, bumping the table with his knees, and then all of them were awake.
"What?" Hedge demanded. "Fight who? Where?"
"Falling!" Leo grabbed the table. "No—not falling. Where are we?"
Jason blinked, trying to get his bearings. He focused on Lorna and made a little choking sound. "What are you wearing?"
Lorna probably blushed. She was wearing a white low cut shirt with black leggings. At least she still had her jacket. "Some creep changed me—I don't know who."
"It's nothing," Piper said. "It's my—"
Piper suddenly cut herself off. She was wearing the turquoise dress, with black leggings and black leather boots. She had her old snowboarding jacket, which amazingly went with the outfit pretty well.
"It's nothing." Leo grinned. "Aphrodite strikes again, huh? We're gonna be the best-dressed warriors in town, beauty queen."
"Hey, Leo." Jason nudged his arm. "You look at yourself recently?"
"What . . . oh."
All of them had been give a makeover. Leo was wearing pinstriped pants, black leather shoes, a white collarless shirt with suspenders, and his tool belt, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and a porkpie hat.
"God, Leo." Piper tried not to laugh. "I think my dad wore that to his last premiere, minus the tool belt."
"Hey, shut up!"
"I think he looks good," said Coach Hedge. "'Course, I look better."
The satyr was a pastel nightmare. Aphrodite had given him a baggy canary yellow zoot suit with two-tone shoes that fit over his hooves. He had a matching yellow broad-brimmed hat, a rose-colored shirt, a baby blue tie, and a blue carnation in his lapel, which Hedge sniffed and then ate.
"Well," Jason said, "at least your mom overlooked me."
Lorna knew that wasn't exactly true. Looking at him, her heart did a little tap dance. Jason was dressed simply in jeans and a clean purple T-shirt, like he'd worn at the Grand Canyon. He had new track shoes on, and his hair was newly trimmed. His eyes were the same color as the sky. Aphrodite's message was clear: This one needs no improvement. And Lorna agreed.
"Anyway," Lorna said uncomfortably, "how did we get here?"
"Oh, that would be Mellie," Hedge said, chewing happily on his carnation. "Those winds shot us halfway across the country, I'd guess. We would've been smashed flat on impact, but Mellie's last gift—a nice soft breeze—cushioned our fall."
"And she got fired for us," Leo said. "Man, we suck."
"You're the only one that sucks." Lorna said.
"Ah, she'll be fine," Hedge said. "Besides, she couldn't help herself. I've got that effect on nymphs. I'll send her a message when we're through with this quest and help her figure something out. That is one aura I could settle down with and raise a herd of baby goats."
"I'm going to be sick," Piper said. "Anyone else want coffee?"
"Coffee!" Hedge's grin was stained blue from the flower. "I love coffee!"
"Um," Jason said, "but—money? Our packs?"
Lorna looked down. Their packs were at their feet, and everything seemed to still be there. Piper reached into her coat pocket and got out a wad of cash.
Leo whistled. "Allowance? Piper, your mom rocks!"
"Waitress!" Hedge called. "Six double espressos, and whatever these guys want. Put it on the girl's tab."
It didn't take them long to figure out where they were. The menus said "Café Verve, Walnut Creek, CA." And according to the waitress, it was 9 a.m. on December 21, the winter solstice, which gave them three hours until Enceladus's deadline. They didn't have to wonder where Mount Diablo was, either. They could see it on the horizon, right at the end of the street. After the Rockies, Mount Diablo didn't look very large, nor was it covered in snow. It seemed downright peaceful, its golden creases marbled with gray-green trees. But size was deceptive with mountains, Lorna knew. It was probably much bigger up close. And appearances were deceptive too. Here they were—back in California—supposedly her home—with sunny skies, mild weather, laid-back people, and a plate of chocolate chip scones with coffee. And only a few miles away, somewhere on that peaceful mountain, a superpowerful, superevil giant was about to have her father for lunch.
Leo pulled something out of his pocket—the old crayon drawing Aeolus had given him. Aphrodite must've thought it was important if she'd magically transferred it to his new outfit.
"What is that?" Piper asked.
Leo folded it up gingerly again and put it away. "Nothing. You don't want to see my kindergarten artwork."
"It's more than that," Jason guessed.
"Aeolus said it was the key to our success." Lorna said.
Leo shook his head. "Not today. He was talking about... later."
"How can you be sure?" Piper asked.
"Trust me," Leo said. "Now—what's our game plan?"
Coach Hedge belched. He'd already had three espressos and a plate of doughnuts, along with two napkins and another flower from the vase on the table. He would've eaten the silverware, except Piper had slapped his hand.
"Climb the mountain," Hedge said. "Kill everything except Piper's dad. Leave."
"Thank you, General Eisenhower," Jason grumbled.
"Hey, I'm just saying!"
"Guys," Piper said. "There's more you need to know."
She told them about their real enemy: Gaea.
"Gaea?" Leo shook his head. "Isn't that Mother Nature? She's supposed to have, like, flowers in her hair and birds singing around her and deer and rabbits doing her laundry."
"Leo, that's Snow White," Piper said.
"Okay, but—"
"Listen, cupcake." Coach Hedge dabbed the espresso out of his goatee. "Piper's telling us some serious stuff, here. Gaea's no softie. I'm not even sure I could take her."
Leo whistled. "Really?"
Hedge nodded. "This earth lady—she and her old man the sky were nasty customers."
"Ouranos," Piper said. She couldn't help looking up at the blue sky, wondering if it had eyes.
"Right," Hedge said. "So Ouranos, he's not the best dad. He throws their first kids, the Cyclopes, into Tartarus. That makes Gaea mad, but she bides her time. Then they have another set of kids—the twelve Titans—and Gaea is afraid they'll get thrown into prison too. So she goes up to her son Kronos—"
"The big bad dude," Leo said. "The one they defeated last summer."
"Right. And Gaea's the one who gives him the scythe, and tells him, 'Hey, why don't I call your dad down here? And while he's talking to me, distracted, you can cut him to pieces. Then you can take over the world. Wouldn't that be great?"
Nobody said anything. Lorna wished that everything Piper said was a joke and she would say 'Sike! Haha! You thought!'. Lorna wished it was a dream and that when she wakes up, she would be back at camp with Percy.
"Definitely not Snow White," Piper decided.
"Nah, Kronos was a bad guy," Hedge said. "But Gaea is literally the mother of all bad guys. She's so old and powerful, so huge, that it's hard for her to be fully conscious. Most of the time, she sleeps, and that's the way we like her—snoring."
"But she talked to me," Leo said. "How can she be asleep?"
Gleeson brushed crumbs off his canary yellow lapel. He was on his sixth espresso now, and his pupils were as big as quarters. "Even in her sleep, part of her consciousness is active—dreaming, keeping watch, doing little things like causing volcanoes to explode and monsters to rise. Even now, she's not fully awake. Believe me, you don't want to see her fully awake."
"But she's getting more powerful," Piper said. "She's causing the giants to rise. And if their king comes back—this guy Porphyrion—"
"He'll raise an army to destroy the gods," Jason put in. "Starting with Hera. It'll be another war. And Gaea will wake up fully."
"You okay?" Leo noticed that Lorna wasn't saying anything.
"It's just. . . we thought that after Kronos, everything will be over and we could live a peaceful life." Lorna's voice cracked. "Now Gaea. . . God, my life sucks."
Lorna also realised that her friends didn't know about Luke. Jason looked at her and intertwined their fingers, which made Lorna smile thankfully.
Gleeson nodded. "Which is why it's a good idea for us to stay off the ground as much as possible."
Leo looked warily at Mount Diablo. "So ... climbing a mountain. That would be bad."
Lorna's heart sank. The idea of fighting a giant had been scary enough. But the idea that Gaea was behind it—a force more powerful than a god or Titan ...
"Guys, I can't ask you to do this," Piper said. "This is too dangerous."
"You kidding?" Gleeson belched and showed them his blue carnation smile. "Who's ready to beat stuff up?"