Chapter Text
“Jason, you okay?” The unfamiliar girl next to him says.
“Um, I don’t—” In the front of the bus, a teacher shouts.
“All right, cupcakes, listen up!”
“Stand up, Coach Hedge!” someone says.
“I heard that!” The coach scans the bus for the offender. Then his eyes fix on Jason and another girl, and his scowl deepens. Jason turns to the other girl. Unlike the one by his side, she looks very confused, almost like she’s in the same situation as Jason. She’s as pretty as the other girl, with green eyes and long hair tinted bright pink, she’s wearing the same purple shirt as Jason. She looks familiar to him, like someone he knows but doesn’t remember. Coach Hedge looks away and clears his throat. “We’ll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don’t lose your worksheet. And if any of your precious little cupcakes causes any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way.” He picks up a baseball bat and makes he is hitting a homer. Jason looks at the girl next to him.
“Can he talk to us that way?” She shrugs.
“Always does. This is the Wilderness School. ‘Where kids are the animals.’” She says it like it’s a joke they shared before.
“This is some kind of mistake,” Jason says. “I’m not supposed to be here.” The other girl blinks at him and mutters something similar to ‘me neither’. The boy in front of them turns and laughs.
“Yeah, right, Jason. We’ve all been framed! I didn’t run away six times. Piper didn’t steal a BMW.” The girl blushes.
“I didn’t steal that car, Leo!”
“Oh, I forgot, Piper. What was your story? You ‘talked’ the dealer into lending it to you?” He raises his eyebrows at Jason like, can you believe her? “Anyway,” Leo says, “I hope you’ve got your worksheet, ’cause I used mine for spit wads days ago. Why are you looking at me like that? Somebody draw on my face again?”
“I don’t know you,” Jason says. Leo gives him a crocodile grin. “
Sure. I’m not your best friend. I’m his evil clone.”
“Leo Valdez!” Coach Hedge yells from the front. “Problem back there?” Leo winks at Jason.
“Watch this.” He turns to the front. “Sorry, Coach! I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?” Coach Hedge grunts like he is pleases to have an excuse. He unclips the megaphone from his belt and continues giving directions, but his voice comes out like Darth Vader’s. The kids crack up. The coach tries again, but this time the megaphone blares.
“The cow says moo!” The kids howl, and the coach slams down the megaphone. “Valdez!” Piper stifles a laugh.
“My god, Leo. How did you do that?” Leo slips a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve.
“I’m a special boy.”
“Guys, seriously,” Jason pleads. “What am I doing here? Where are we going?” Piper knits her eyebrows.
“Jason, are you joking?”
“No! I have no idea—”
“I… I don’t know where I am either”
“Wait Celeste? What do you mean.” Piper asks.
“Celeste?” her eyes widen as she mutters the name like it’s unfamiliar to her.
“It’s your name” Leo deadpans. She stares at him with confusion. “And for Jason… He’s trying to get me back for that shaving cream on the Jell-O thing, aren’t you?” Jason stares at him blankly.
“No, I think they’re serious.” Piper tries to take his hand again, but he pulls it away.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I don’t—I can’t—”
“That’s it!” Coach Hedge yells from the front. “The back row has just volunteered to clean up after lunch!” The rest of the kids cheer.
…
Mizi doesn’t know how she ended up here, the last thing she remembers is being shot by both sides of the conflict, all her mistakes glaring back at her as died. And now she’s on a strange vehicle, a bus, her mind surprisingly gives her, surrounded by people that look like her age, 15? 16? Looking at her body she doesn’t know and the kids around her are unfamiliar to her. Only the boy who looks as confused as she is, Jason, looks vaguely familiar. Still, she doesn’t recognize him, not fully. Then there’s the name, Celeste, they’re calling her, familiar but not at the same time. Her name is Mizi, it’s always been that way, at least in her memories. The loved Mizi, the disposable Mizi, the hated Mizi, Mizi, always Mizi, so why is it Celeste now. The girl she’s been paired up with seems nice at least. Her name is Piper, and she’s pretty, not at the level of Mizi’s universe but pretty all the same. Her universe, her Sua, is she here, is she safe, or is she gone like before. She doesn’t have time to think about that because the storm above them has turned into a hurricane. Kids are screaming and running for the building. Jason skids across the slick floor. Leo loses his balance and almost topples over the railing, but Jason grabs his jacket and pulls him back.
“Thanks, man!” Leo yells.
“Go, go, go!” says Coach Hedge. Piper and a guy Mizi thinks his name is Dylan, are holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside. Piper’s snowboarding jacket is flapping wildly, her dark hair all in her face. She looks calm and confident—telling the others it will be okay, encouraging them to keep moving. Jason, Leo, and Coach Hedge run towards them, but it is like running through quicksand. Mizi is standing, something keeping her in place even with the wind. The wind seems to fight the others, pushing them back. Dylan and Piper push one more kid inside, then lose their grip on the doors. They slam shut, closing off the skywalk. Piper tugs at the handles. Inside, the kids pound on the glass, but the doors seemed to be stuck.
“Dylan, help!” Piper shouts. Dylan just stands there with an idiotic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, like he is suddenly enjoying the storm.
“Sorry, Piper,” he says. “I’m done helping.” He flicks his wrist, and Piper flies backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck. Close to Mizi, she can finally move, running against the winds to approach the girl.
“Piper!” Jason tries to charge forward, but the wind is against him, and Coach Hedge pushes him back.
“Coach,” Jason says, “let me go!”
“Jason, Leo, stay behind me,” the coach order. “This is my fight. I should’ve known that was our monster.”
“What?” Leo demands “What monster?” The coach’s cap blows off, she cannot see what’s happening but something in not human about him. Dylan gives him a psycho happy smile.
“Oh, come on, Coach. Let the boy attack me! After all, you’re getting too old for this. Isn’t that why they retired you to this stupid school? I’ve been on your team the entire season, and you didn’t even know. You’re losing your nose, grandpa.” The coach makes an angry sound like an animal bleating.
“That’s it, cupcake. You’re going down.”
“You think you can protect four half-bloods at once, old man?” Dylan laughs. “Good luck.”
…
“J-J-Jason,” Piper manages. Jason opens his eyes. They aren’t falling anymore. They are floating in midair, a hundred feet above the river. “How did you—”
“I didn’t,” he says. “I think I would know if I could fly…” Piper yelps as they shot a few feet higher. “The air is supporting us,” he says.
“Well, tell it to support us more! Get us out of here!” Jason looks down. Then he looks up. The rain has stopped. Piper looks at his face. “We have to help them, can you—”
“Let’s see.” As soon as they land on the skywalk, they run to Leo, Celeste is already by his side. She looks worried but something is different, she isn’t happy she isn’t bubbly, something is very wrong. Leo groans.
“Stupid … ugly … goat,” he mutters.
“Where did he go?” Piper asks. Leo points straight up.
“Never came down. Please tell me he didn’t actually save my life.”
“Twice,” Jason says. Leo groans even louder.
“What happened? The tornado guy, the gold sword … I hit my head. That’s it, right? I’m hallucinating?” Jason flips it. Midspin, the sword shrinks back into a coin and lands in his palm.
“Yep,” Leo says. “Definitely hallucinating.” Piper shivers in her rain-soaked clothes.
“Jason, those things—”
“Venti,” him and Celeste say. “Storm spirits.” They exchange a surprised look.
“Okay. You acted like … like you’d seen them before. Who are you two?” They shake their heads.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I don’t know.”
“Same here” Celeste mutters. “I… I don’t remember even my own name” The storm dissipates. The other kids from the Wilderness School are staring out the glass doors in horror. Security guards are working on the locks.
“Coach Hedge said he had to protect three people,” Jason remembers. “I think he meant us.”
“And that thing Dylan turned into …” Piper shudders. “God, I can’t believe it was hitting on me. He called us… what, demigods?” Leo lays on his back, staring at the sky.
“Don’t know what demi means,” he says. “But I’m not feeling too godly. You guys feeling godly?” There is a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk begin to widen.
“We need to get off this thing,” Jason says. “Maybe if we—”
“Ohhh-kay,” Leo interrupts. “Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses.”
…
“Where are they?” the girl demands. Her gray eyes are fierce and a little startling.
“Where’s who?” Jason asks. She frowns like his answer is unacceptable. Then she turns to Leo, Piper and Celeste.
“What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?” Leo clears his throat.
“He got taken by some … tornado things.”
“Venti,” Jason says. “Storm spirits.” The blond girl arches an eyebrow.
“You mean anemoi thuellai? That’s the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?” Jason does his best to explain, though it is hard to meet those intense gray eyes. About halfway through the story, the other guy from the chariot comes over. He stands there glaring at them, his arms crossed. When Jason has finished his story, the blond girl doesn’t look satisfied.
“No, no, no! She told us they would be here. She told me if I came here, I’d find the answer.”
“Annabeth,” the bald guy grunts. “Check it out.” He points at Jason’s feet, “The guy with one shoe,” Then he points at Celeste’s hair “And the girl with pink hair” says the bald dude. “They’re the answer.”
“No, Butch,” the girl insists. “He can’t be. Kairos and I were tricked.” She glares at the sky as though it has done something wrong. “What do you want from me?” she screams. “What have you done with them?” The skywalk shudders, and the horses whinny urgently.
“Annabeth,” says the bald dude, Butch, “we gotta leave. Let’s get these three to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back.” She fumes for a moment.
“Fine.” She fixes Jason with a resentful look, then Celeste. “We’ll settle this later.” She turns on her heel and marches towards the chariot. Piper shakes her head.
“What’s her problem? What’s going on?”
“Seriously,” Leo agrees.
“We have to get you out of here,” Butch said. “I’ll explain on the way.”
“I’m not going anywhere with her.” Jason gestures towards the blonde. “She looks like she wants to kill me.”
“Why is she so angry?” Celeste asks, frowning. Butch hesitates.
“Annabeth’s okay. You gotta cut her some slack. She had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. Then Kairos had another of the a girl with the pink hair and well... That was supposed to be the answer to their problem.”
“What problem?” Piper asks.
“She’s been looking for two of our campers, who’ve been missing three days,” Butch says. “She’s going out of her mind with worry. She hoped they’d be here.”
“Who?” Jason asks.
“Her boyfriend and his sister,” Butch says. “Twins named Percy and Psyche Jackson.”