Struck by Lightning

IX

t took them over ten hours to drive from the Hoover Dam to San Francisco, after factoring the stops for food and breaks – after all, Thalia was still a mortal, and she couldn't drive forever. By the time they pulled into an open spot near the Embarcadero Center, it was already mid-day, and the sun was glaring as harshly down as it could in winter on the city of San Francisco. The next day was the Winter Solstice. They were running out of time.

Thalia shut off the van's engine as the four questers sat in silence. Turning around, she had an inquisitive look as they all stared at one another.

"Ideas?" she asked.

"Well," Grover began, his tone uncertain but hopeful, "the 'bane of Olympus' is supposed to show us the way, but we don't know what it is."

"So we need to find this monster," Percy suddenly said, picking up on what Grover was hinting at. "We find it, and it'll lead us to Artemis." He smiled as everyone else nodded their heads.

"Wait," Bianca spoke up. "What's the monster?"

Everybody froze. They were trying to follow the trail of a monster, yet they had no idea what the monster was, much less where that trail began or led. Then Grover sat up straight, as if jolted by electricity.

"Nereus!" he cried. Thalia and Bianca looked at him with confused expressions, while Percy's eyes widened in an 'ah' moment.

"The old man of the sea," Percy whispered. "But where do we find him? I mean, sure, we're on the coast, but the West Coast is huge. He can anywhere in San Francisco – or further."

"Well, I think we can assume that he'll be in San Francisco," Thalia pondered out loud. "The quest is almost certainly pointing us here, where Mount Othrys is rising again. If someone as old and knowledgeable as Nereus were to be anywhere at a time like this, it'd be here, in San Francisco. We need to get onto the street and start looking for trails." The others all hummed a tone of agreement, and they quickly exited the van, stretching as they jumped onto the pavement.

"You know," Percy commented as he exited the van, "I'd assume someone that's called 'the old man of the sea' would be near the sea. Shouldn't we look at the piers and whatnot?" Bianca nodded in agreement as she looked at the older girl. Thalia pursed her lips as she slowly nodded as well.

"Percy and I will take the piers north of Embarcadero," Thalia stated, readying her can of Mace and checking her bracelet. "You two," she continued, looking at Grover and Bianca, "take everything south of it. Use Grover's sense of smell to sniff out everything that's off, but try to keep to the piers." The two nodded, and they headed off, Grover's nose already tilted upwards and sniffing. From a distance, Thalia saw Bianca giggle at Grover's antics.

"Righto, you ready?" Percy asked, causing the girl to turn back toward him. With a quick nod, the two set off towards the piers, relying on their senses to hopefully tell them when something was 'off' in the bad ancient Greek way.

"What do we do if we find Nereus?" Percy asked, glaring at all of the potential "this could be Nereus" people, which included anyone that was over fifty and had a beard, and trying not to look like a creep.

"If I remember my myths correctly, Hercules needed Nereus to find the Golden Apples of the Hesperides." Thalia held her chin with one hand in thought. "I think when Nereus jumped into the sea, Hercules held on as tightly as he could until Nereus gave up." She smiled at her words. "Well, this makes it pretty easy for you then, right?"

Percy nervously chuckled as they reached the pier. It was filled with old homeless people that fit Percy's search descriptions, but most of them were pretty average – regular (if bad) smells and no "I can and will smite you" auras. It wasn't until they reached the end of the pier that Percy found someone that stood out.