The New Trinity -- Percy Jackson Batman Crossover -- The Olympian Heroes Book 4

17. Percy

It didn't seem fair that I'd have to do cabin inspection when I just got to camp, but that's the way it worked. Every afternoon, one of the senior
counselors came around with a papyrus scroll checklist. Best cabin got first shower hour, which meant hot water guaranteed. Worst cabin got kitchen patrol after dinner.
The problem for me: I was usually the only one in the Poseidon cabin, and I'm not exactly what you would call neat. The cleaning harpies only came through on the last day of summer, so my cabin was probably just the way I'd left it on winter break: my candy wrappers and chip bags still on my
bunk, my armor for capture the flag lying in pieces all around the cabin.
I raced toward the commons area, where the twelve cabins—one for each Olympian god—made a U around the central green. The Demeter kids were sweeping out theirs and making fresh flowers grow in their window boxes.
Just by snapping their fingers they could make honeysuckle vines bloom over their doorway and daisies cover their roof, which was totally unfair. I don't think they ever got last place in inspection. The guys in the Hermes cabin were scrambling around in a panic, stashing dirty laundry under their beds and accusing each other of taking stuff. They were slobs, but they still
had a head start on me.
Over at the Aphrodite cabin, Silena Beauregard was just coming out,
checking items off the inspection scroll. I cursed under my breath. Silena was nice, but she was an absolute neat freak, the worst inspector. She liked things to be pretty. I didn't do "pretty." I could almost feel my arms getting
heavy from all the dishes I would have to scrub tonight.
The Poseidon cabin was at the end of the row of "male god" cabins on the right side of the green. It was made of gray shell-encrusted sea rock, long
and low like a bunker, but it had windows that faced the sea and it always had a good breeze blowing through it.
I dashed inside, wondering if maybe I could do a quick under-the-bed cleaning job like the Hermes guys, and I found my half-brother Tyson
sweeping the floor.
"Percy!" he bellowed. He dropped his broom and ran at me. If you've never been charged by an enthusiastic Cyclops wearing a flowered apron and rubber cleaning gloves, I'm telling you, it'll wake you up quick.
"Hey, big guy!" I said. "Ow, watch the ribs. The ribs."
I managed to survive his bear hug. He put me down, grinning like crazy,
his single calf-brown eye full of excitement. His teeth were as yellow and crooked as ever, and his hair was a rat's nest. He wore ragged XXXL jeans and a tattered flannel shirt under his flowered apron, but he was still a sight for sore eyes. I hadn't seen him in almost a year, since he'd gone under the sea to work at the Cyclopes' forges.
"You are okay?" he asked. "Not eaten by monsters?"
"Not even a little bit." I showed him that I still had both arms and both
legs, and Tyson clapped happily.
"Yay!" he said. "Now we can eat peanut butter sandwiches and ride fish ponies! We can fight monsters and see Annabeth and make things go BOOM!"
I hoped he didn't mean all at the same time, but I told him absolutely, we'd have a lot of fun this summer. I couldn't help smiling, he was so
enthusiastic about everything.
"But first," I said, "we've gotta worry about inspection. We should..."
Then I looked around and realized Tyson had been busy. The floor was
swept. The bunk beds were made. The saltwater fountain in the corner had
been freshly scrubbed so the coral gleamed. On the windowsills, Tyson had set out water-filled vases with sea anemones and strange glowing plants from the bottom of the ocean, more beautiful than any flower bouquets the Demeter kids could whip up.
"Tyson, the cabin looks...amazing!"
He beamed. "See the fish ponies? I put them on the ceiling!"
A herd of miniature bronze hippocampi hung on wires from the ceiling, so it looked like they were swimming through the air. I couldn't believe Tyson, with his huge hands, could make things so delicate. Then I looked over at my bunk, and I saw my old shield hanging on the wall.
"You fixed it!"
The shield had been badly damaged in a manticore attack last winter. But now it was perfect again—not a scratch. All the bronze pictures of my adventures with Tyson and Annabeth in the Sea of Monsters were polished and gleaming.
I looked at Tyson. I didn't know how to thank him.
Then somebody behind me said, "Oh, my."
Silena Beauregard was standing in the doorway with her inspection scroll.
She stepped into the cabin, did a quick twirl, then raised her eyebrows at me.
"Well, I had my doubts. But you clean up nicely, Percy. I'll remember that."
She winked at me and left the room.

Tyson and I spent the afternoon catching up and just hanging out, which was nice after a morning of getting attacked by demon cheerleaders.
We went down to the forge and helped Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin with his metalworking. Tyson showed us how he'd learned to craft magic weapons. He fashioned a flaming double-bladed war axe so fast even Beckendorf was impressed. While he worked, Tyson told us about his year under the sea. His eye lit up when he described the Cyclopes' forges and the palace of Poseidon, but he also told us how tense things were. The old gods of the sea, who'd ruled during Titan times, were starting to make war on our father. When Tyson had left, battles had been raging all over the Atlantic. Hearing that made me feel anxious, like I should be helping out, but Tyson assured me that Dad wanted us both at camp.
"Lots of bad people above the sea, too," Tyson said. "We can make them go boom."
After the forges, we spent some time at the canoe lake with Annabeth.
She was really glad to see Tyson, but I could tell she was distracted. She
kept looking over at the forest, like she was thinking about Grover's problem with the council. I couldn't blame her. Grover was nowhere to be seen, and I felt really bad for him. Finding the lost god Pan had been his lifelong goal.
His father and his uncle had both disappeared following the same dream.
Last winter, Grover had heard a voice in his head: I await you, a voice he
was sure belonged to Pan, but apparently his search had led nowhere. If the council took away his searcher's license now, it would crush him.
"What's this 'other way'?" I asked Annabeth. "The thing Clarisse
mentioned?"
She picked up a stone and skipped it across the lake. "Something Clarisse
scouted out. I helped her a little this spring. But it would be dangerous.
Especially for Grover."
"Goat boy scares me," Tyson murmured.
I stared at him. Tyson had faced down fire-breathing bulls and sea
monsters and cannibal giants. "Why would you be scared of Grover?"
"Hooves and horns," Tyson muttered nervously. "And goat fur makes my
nose itchy."
And that pretty much ended our Grover conversation.
We stayed at the lake a little longer until Annabeth mentioned she had studying to do.
"What for?" I asked
"I'll tell you later" she said before slipping her shoes on and walking back to her cabin.

The next morning there was a lot of excitement at breakfast.
Apparently around three in the morning an Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. I was so exhausted I slept right through the noise. The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in our defenses, and it didn't seem anxious to go away until Lee Fletcher from Apollo's cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit. After a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon's
armor, it got the message and withdrew.
"It's still out there," Lee warned us during announcements. "Twenty
arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long
and bright green. It's eyes—" he shuddered.
"You did well, Lee," Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everyone stay
alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."
"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."
The campers murmured among themselves.
Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning
an invasion of the camp. Most of us expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that our attendance was down. We only had about eighty campers. Three years ago, when I'd started, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.
"This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."
"Yes..." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this
meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods."
We all raised our glasses and repeated the blessing.
Tyson and I took our plates to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of our food into the flames. I hoped the gods liked raisin toast and Froot Loops.
"Poseidon," I said. Then I whispered, "Help me with Nico, and Luke, and
Grover's problem...please just....help me"
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