Chapter 14 - Doris and the Curse of the Princess Andromeda
If you wish to take what happened to the two kids as punishment for giving up Doris to the police, then that's your prerogative.
Faced with a halfblood and a mortal wielding a sword, I wished I had my spear. I hadn't brought it with me to work today because honestly, who gets put in life threatening situations at a food court two days in a row? Obviously that person was me, and I had to deal with it now. I did the smart thing and ran.
"Wait! We just want to talk!" The girl cried, but I was already slithering away at full speed.
Now normally a foot race between two small children and a fully-grown adult ends decisively in favor of the adult, but my snake-legs aren't built for running. We reached the subway at almost the same time, and I was treated to the most awkward subway ride in history. Well, at least since that time I took Rainbow shopping for a new rug.
"Please just give us a few minutes." The girl whispered.
"No." I hissed back.
The two followed me all the way back to my apartment building. I tried to use my adult stamina to outlast them by running up the stairwell instead of taking the elevator. Bad move. As it turns out, children have lots and lots of energy. Adults like myself have a limited supply, and I had been running most of the way here.
The boy had to help me limp up the last flight of stairs. Once I finished crawling to my apartment, the girl had to take my keys and open the door for me. I pulled myself across the threshold and looked for Rainbow.
"Rainbow... I need… your help…" I gasped out. But my would-be savior was nowhere to be seen, and I wailed softly. The boy patted me on the back as the girl helped me to the couch.
"How… did you find me?" I panted.
"Mostly by chance." The girl explained. "We were in the food court yesterday and saw the commotion. You looked slightly different from the last time we saw you, but you're still recognizable."
I cursed my half-assed Mist mask. If only I'd been willing to put more effort into it…
"I'm glad we found you, because we really need your help." The girl continued.
"You're a mortal… and a halfblood. I'm a monster, and not even one of the 'good' types… like a centaur or pegasus." I glanced at the sheath at the girl's side, and asked a question that had really been bothering me. "Where'd you even get a normal sword anyways? I know Camp Half-Blood hands out weapons like party favors… but they're always celestial bronze."
"This?" She asked, waving the sword around before returning it to its sheath. "A relative took it off a dead Japanese soldier in World War II. It's not ideal, and it's heavy for someone like me, but against things armed with nothing more than a knife it's worked well so far."
I stared at her. "And no one's found it odd for a teenager to be lugging around a sword?"
Unlike weapons of celestial bronze, mortal weapons weren't naturally shrouded with the Mist. While I could walk down the street and my spear would appear as an umbrella, or something similarly non-lethal, that sword would still look like a sword.
"Hector, what's rule #3?" She asked.
The boy latched onto his sister's leg and looked up at her eyes in glee. "Always use the Mist to hide Sissy's sword!" He chirped.
His sister reached down and tousled his hair.
I sighed. "If you really want some help then there is something I can do for you. You're going to want celestial bronze if you intend to keep on fighting monsters. It's sharper than steel, naturally hidden from mortal eyes, and poisonous to monsters." I said before limping to the closet.
When I opened it, a dozen duplicates of Rainbow stared back at me. Ignoring the headache that caused, I reached past them and grabbed Custer's sword. I shut the door and turned back to my guests.
"Here. This is the sword of George Armstrong Custer, it'll work much better. There, I've helped you. Now shoo."
The girl stared at me like I was a lunatic. "You just have the sword of a famous American general sitting in your closet? Do you also have Patton's revolver in your nightstand? Washington's socks in your wardrobe? The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in your bathroom?"
At that exact moment, the balcony door opened. In trotted Rainbow, who was balancing a FedEx package on her back. "Hello Doris, hello random children." She said as she walked past us and into my bedroom.
The girl turned back to me with a furious glare on her face. "Sorry, I meant to say the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is on your balcony. She certainly wasn't there when we came in!"
"I can confirm there is no entrance to the Chamber of Secrets on the balcony." Rainbow said as she reentered the room sans-package. She spoke this in her serious tone of voice, as if it was something she actively checked balconies for.
The girl turned to look at Rainbow… mostly. Her eyes were focused a few feet above where Rainbow's head was, and it made me wonder what she was seeing. Perhaps the black haired lawyer form Rainbow had used last year at the police station?
Her brother, however, saw exactly what was there. He practically vibrated in place with excitement, his hands twitching with the young child's instinct to touch everything interesting.
"Who are you and why are you here?" The girl demanded.
"I live here." The pegasus said dismissively, before turning to look at Hector in interest.
The girl's eyes widened in surprise, and she turned to look at me as if she'd just realized something. "Oh, I see, you're…" She began to say.
But before she could finish, her brother lost control of himself. "You're so pretty!" He said as he bolted over and began to pet Rainbow.
"Brother!" The girl cried in shock.
"It's okay." Rainbow said. The air twisted, and I could tell that Rainbow had dropped the veil of Mist that had been obscuring her form from the girl's eyes. While the girl stared in shock, Rainbow used one of her wings to pat Hector on the head. Then the pegasus turned to face me. "Not that I particularly care, but out of curiosity, why have you invited a demigod into your apartment?"
I glared at the two. "They followed me here from work. Where are your parents anyways, haven't they ever told you not to follow strangers home?"
The two glanced at each other. "That's the problem." The boy said softly.
The girl sighed. "After you rescued us last year, our father decided he would send Hector to Camp Half-Blood next summer. So a few months ago we planned out one last family vacation together. We packed up our things, sent the family dog to a friend's house, and boarded the Princess Andromeda for a Caribbean cruise."
The girl paused. I motioned for her to continue, and she frowned.
"I was hoping you might have heard of it. I don't remember most of what happened, but Hector said that as soon as we left port everyone on board went into a trance."
"They started acting like robots." He supplied. "But not like good robots, but broken ones. Also, there were monsters everywhere! I saw a bunch of snake ladies like you, only mean and not nice, and a few dogs that looked like Clifford, but also mean and not nice. Along with me, they were the only ones who weren't acting like robots."
"So how'd you get here?" I asked.
"I pushed her right over the side!"
I stared at him in shock. The girl sighed. "Yes, you did. One day while the ship was at a port in Florida, Hector managed to shove me over the side of the boat and jumped after me. It was like I woke up from a dream, except instead of waking up in my bed I woke up fifty feet above the water. We barely made it to shore."
While that was sad and all, that didn't explain why they were here. "Okay, you escaped. Congratulations. Why are you still here?"
"Because our father is still on board, Hector wasn't strong enough to push him over the railing." The girl supplied.
I stared at the two. "And you came to me? Why didn't you go to that stupid camp? Halfbloods love quests, surely they could help you?"
She shook her head. "That's what we did at first. I managed to get Hector all the way to the Camp and dropped him off, and trust me that wasn't easy. He ran away and found me the next morning."
"They wouldn't help!" The boy cried angrily. "They said they 'couldn't find the ship', and 'it's too dangerous'. They wanted me to just leave Dad there with all the bad guys! Even the nice magic lady wouldn't help, so I went back to Sissy, because I knew she'd help!"
The girl looked pained as she smiled at her brother. "Yes, because I've always dreamed of taking on a ship full of monsters with the family stolen sword. The same ship that I can't even set foot on without suffering from the jedi mind-trick of doom."
Hector stared at her in admiration. "You're so amazing Sissy."
Okay, I had to ask it. "Who's the nice magic lady?"
The girl turned back to me. "I think that's his Mom, but I've never seen her. Anyways will you help us?"
"No."
"Please? What if it was your parents trapped on that cruise ship? Wouldn't you do anything to save them?"
"I'd leave them. They were horrible parents." I said, shaking my head.
"Please? We'll do anything! Our dad's really rich!" The girl pleaded.
"I can do cool magic tricks for you!" The boy added.
That made me pause. I had been trying to gain more money lately. I also knew that there were places halfbloods could go and things they could do that even the gods couldn't. Something about them being half and half made them special.
Even Rainbow, who previously had been focused mostly on Hector's head, was paying attention now.
"Anything?" I asked tentatively. "And all I have to do is go on a boat and drag a guy off of it?"
The two nodded.
I thought about it. If there was a spell or curse that rendered mortals incoherent, but left halfbloods and monsters unaffected, then it was probably pretty weak. A minor calming spell or something. All I'd have to do would be to get on board, pick up the guy, and leave. Simple.
Plus the offer from the halfblood was really tempting. What monster wouldn't want their own halfblood they could throw at a situation to make it go away? Rainbow already owed me twice over, but there were things she couldn't or wouldn't want to do, and as always that was when halfbloods stepped up to the plate and took the shit jobs. Sure, he was rather tiny at the moment, but in a few years who knew how powerful he'd be?
"I'll do it. You two owe me metaphorically, and your dad owes me literally."
A grin threatened to split the girl's face. "Great! Thank you so much! I'll take Hector and head back home tomorrow while you go and-"
"Oh no," I interrupted, "You aren't getting out of this that easily, you're coming with me. I don't know what your dad looks like, and if anything goes wrong you guys are dealing with it too."
"I'll come as well, under the same terms." Rainbow said.
I turned to her in shock. "What? Why do you want to go?"
"I have no source of income, and halfbloods are always useful." She reminded me. Huh, I guess even immortals had finance issues. "Besides, I have business in the area anyways."
I stared at her. "What business could you possibly have in Florida? You've barely left my apartment in the past year."
Rainbow gave me a look, one that I knew from experience meant I wouldn't be getting any answers on that front.
"Who is she and why should we bring her with us? I don't think any of us could ride a pegasus that small." The girl asked skeptically.
A savage grin came across Rainbow's muzzle, and she leapt onto the coffee table to stand before us. "I am a daughter of Nyx!" She boomed. Her fur and feathers darkened until they turned into shadowy wisps as she discarded her current guise. She began to glow ominously, and the power held within her small frame threatened to break free and incinerate all of us.
The siblings leaned back in shock. Rainbow, having divested herself of what she insisted was her 'business suit', had become the mute shadowy figure that had once haunted my dreams. She probably thought this was very intimidating, but after you got past the initial shock she looked like a girl's edgy nightlight. A very edgy nightlight.
"She goes by Rainbow." I commented.
The girl burst into laughter. Rainbow froze in shock, then glared at me as she donned her usual form. I ignored it. She gets way too much of a kick out of scaring people like that for it to be healthy.
"Can… can whatever Rainbow is really come with us?" The girl asked.
Rainbow looked at her oddly. "Why couldn't I?"
"Well, from what my dad told me, it seemed like halfbloods had to do everything themselves. He said the gods weren't allowed to act directly."
"That's typically to avoid accusations of favoritism." Rainbow responded. "The gods have a lot of kids, and spending a bunch of time with one but not the others could lead to even more resentment than there currently is. They could if they absolutely needed to though. In any case, I'm a protogenos, not a god, so the same rules don't always apply."
"Have you ever read the myth of Perseus?" I asked the girl. "It's basically two gods dragging the most unathletic kid they could find across ancient Greece to fame and fortune."