Jack stood infront of us, a trench coat that dropped past his knees and a navy blue suit vest underneath with a black button up as the finishing touch. Around his torn and raggedy pants he wore two belts, the main one held a knife and a bag, the other belt was sagging down to his right and it held bullets and a navy revolver. According to the legends he always wore a magic hat, but all I saw was rough black oak hair.
It was kind of hard to look at him, he was a little blurry? The ethereal threads emitted from him making it a headache to stare for to long, but Andromeda didnt seem fazed by it. She was still eccentric for having found a ghost.
"Hello! I'm sort of new to this, can you hear me?" Andromeda waved her hand infront of his face.
The look on his face was somewhere between confusion and shock, I'm certain he was relaxing somewhere in The Underworld just to be ripped away from it and brought back to his home state.
"Yeah, I can hear you," he turned to me, looking at my hands. "You have my hat…" he sounded defeated.
"Oh! I'm sorry sir! Here you go!" I quickly handed his hat back to him.
He took it and carefully reached in, he then pulled out a totem I have never seen. It bore the mark of a god I didn't know but Jack seemed to adore it. Well, did until he snapped it and held his breath. The slight ethereal state faded and he became solid, breathing deeply.
He crouched down and put a hand over his heart, "fuck….one thing you forget about being dead is your heart stops beating."
"I don't think I'll have this problem, sir," Andromeda's smile had faded.
"Neither did I, always thought I'd get killed by a ghoul or impaled by a Minotaur. No, I got stuck in the ethereal plane of existence in my last moments, frozen in time. But let's move on, what do you two need?" Jack asked, reaching his hand out for the feather in Andromeda's hand.
"Well, we thought you were a ghost and wanted to call upon you to solve ghost crimes and stuff," Andromeda looked at him, handing him the feather.
Jack took it and stuck it in his had, the burned feather got some of its form back as he looked at Andromeda. He sighed deeply and took his hat off, reaching into it and pulling out a steel box. The box wasn't significant, but it was frosted over. Andromeda's eyes lit up at the sight of it, Jack soon pulled a necklace from his hat and looked at her.
"You remind me of an old friend, one probably long dead. An Andromeda Rose, daughter of Selene and magic user. She was quite possibly one of the biggest threats I have ever had the pleasure of knowing," Jack smiled softly while throwing the necklace in the box.
My eyes went wide hearing the name of his friend, being a daughter of Selene could be a coincidence but another daughter of Selene being named Andromeda? That couldn't be, but Andromeda didn't seem bothered by this. Did she know about the other Andromeda?
Before I could say anything, the frost on the box disappeared. Jack pulled the necklace out, and handed it to Andromeda, "Here you are, he's gonna be a little groggy but fine."
"Who…or what is it?" Andromeda observed the necklace.
"An old foe, but something tells me they'll respond better to you. Well, I must be on my way," Jack took his hat off once more and pulled out two decks of playing cards. "If you ever need me, use these I'll find you wherever you are.
I took a pack eagerly, opening the old box to be introduced to nothing but Aces of Spades, Andromeda started looking through them too. Jack walked away on the other hand, turning a corner disappearing into a nearby crowd. I don't know how I lost that damn feather hat, but I did.
"Can you tell who's in the necklace?" I asked, walking to Andromeda.
"Someone powerful, like strength wise, past that I have nothing," Andromeda put the necklace around her neck as we both walked to the railing.
"Jack Ace Silver, a legend in demigod history and we brought him back. You think Hekate will notice?" I asked watching as Andromeda conjured up a bronze rebreather and oxygen tank.
"Probably, they have a long history so it wouldn't surprise me if she randomly pulled him from this plane," Andromeda put the diving mask on and strapped the tank to her leg, diving into the water.
I followed suit and began exploring with her, everywhere we went we found abandoned or discarded trinkets. Locks with faded names, dropped food from seagulls, and lots of plastic. Neptune's Blessed tried to keep up restoration efforts, but could only do so much.
Andromeda and me continued swimming further into the cold waters, and saw some sirens gathering by Alcatraz. Their long claws sharpened and fangs stuck out like a barracuda's. Their tails sickening colors of green, blue and purple all with blond or brown hair floating in the water. They swam in a group and began to sing some vocal warm-ups, slowly calling out to mortals. I had been tricked by Sirens once, I knew their calls and I knew how to keep my thoughts true.
I swam forward and struck the first siren, they let out a screech that was ear piercing, I took my hairpin out and it immediately formed a dagger in my hand as Andromeda swam up with a sword in hand. The sirens began to circle us as the song slowly started once more, I won't give in I said over and over in my head.
"IN THE NAME OF POSEIDON! CLEAR THIS REALM!" I shouted through the water, making sure my voice was heard.
"Daughter of The Sea….we starve in our realm…we hunger in The Bermuda….so little prey…" a Siren hissed in response.
"And you will find none here! Go back or I will enforce Poseidon's law!" I shouted back, as I had said it a large moving object slammed me against the rocks.
My vision went blurry, yet focused on my attacker. A large merman with sea green copper armor on, they rose a sword but Andromeda placed hers into his chest. The merman coughed up a black substance and started sinking to the depths, my body burned with pain as I swam back to the Sirens.
"Last…warning…" I warned, tightening my grip around my dagger. "Clear of here, or die."
Andromeda swam to my side with a concerned look in her eyes, but kept her guard up. The Siren looked at where the merman once was as it sunk to the bay floor, her claws taping on her tail. She let out a small song and The Sirens retreated back out of the bay, I watched as the flick of their tails vanished over the horizon.
That's when I saw the blood, I felt light-headed. I needed sleep and maybe some tea, my vision darkened. I heard someone shouting my name and the pressure of water around my ear and throat faded, I felt my consciousness slip through my fingers. The voice kept calling out over and over, losing it's clarity more and more. It sounded like my Mater, where was she now? I missed her, a pair of hands grabbed my face and started shouting out a ringing mess of words.
"Mater?.." I whispered out, slowly succumbing to the cold biting at my skin. I wanted my Mater, as the dark enveloped me entirely.