Hey guys, I hope you enjoy this chapter- please keep it up with the reviews they always make me super happy. The next chapter should be an interesting one I hope.
When they reached the front of the boat Percy felt her mouth drop open in shock and her heart sunk, the water beneath them looked like it was starting to boil.
Then the head of a sea serpent erupted from the bay.
The monster was at least as big as the boat. It was grey and green with a head like a crocodile and razor-sharp teeth. It smelled… well, like something that had just come up from the bottom of New York Harbor. Riding on its neck was a bulky guy in black Greek armour. His face was covered with ugly scars, and he held a javelin in his hand.
"Demios!" Clarisse's eyes widened and she scowled as she yelled the name.
"Hello, sister!" His smile was almost as horrible as the serpent's. "Care to play?"
The monster roared. Tourists screamed and scattered, and Percy cursed under her breath, there was no way of knowing for sure what they were seeing but it can't have been good- they were clearly terrified.
Not that them seeing what was really there would have been that much better all things considered, Rachel had gone pale at the sight and she knew the truth about the world- Percy could imagine it would be terrifying to see if you didn't know how things really were.
"Leave the mortals alone!" Percy called- because she was sure whatever they were seeing he had some influence over it- hadn't Clarisse said something about that, that Demios was good at freaking out entire crowds.
"Or what, daughter of Poseidon?" Demios sneered, "My brother tells me you're a wimp Besides, I love terror. I live on terror!"
He spurred the sea serpent into head-butting the ferry, which sloshed backwards. Alarms blared. Passengers fell over each other trying to get away. Deimos laughed with delight.
Percy cursed under her breath, mind racing, "Rachel- can you try and look after people here?"
"What are you going to do?" Rachel's voice was worried.
"Deal with the serpent and Demios. I have a plan."
"What exactly is your plan?" Clarisse asked, "How the fuck are you supposed to deal with both of them?"
"Get on my back." Percy ordered, "You trust me right?"
"The gods only know why but yes I do."
"Good," and as Clarisse wrapped her arms around Percy's shoulders the daughter of Poseidon glared ahead grimly, "One. Two. Three- JUMP!" and Clarisse did, together they leapt off the deck, leaving Rachel behind to try and deal with the panicking mortals as they plunged straight into the bay.
Percy let them go under for just a second, let the power of the ocean surge forward, the familiar comforting rush of it. It was a feeling that she'd never ever get tired of.
She willed the water to swirl around her, building force until they burst out of the bay on the top of a ten metre high waterspout and Percy steered them straight towards the monster. "Do you think you can handle Demios?" Percy turned her head to the side slightly so that she could look at Clarisse, who gave a bloodthirsty smile.
"I'll teach him to mess with me Just get me within three metres and I'll deal with my asshole of a brother." ." she snarled the words, "You taking on the monster then?" she was still gripping Percy tightly.
"I'm the daughter of Poseidon." Percy gave Clarisse a smirk, "I can handle sea monsters better than anyone else around."
And together they sped towards the serpent. Just as it bared it's fangs Percy swerved the waterspout to one side, letting out a giddy laugh as she did and she felt Clarisse letting go of her and jumping. She watched as the daughter of Ares crashed into her brother and both of them toppled into the sea.
The sea serpent focused on Percy when they happened and she quickly turned the waterspout to face him, summoning her power, willing the water spout to go higher. It was strange to think that once upon a time she'd have struggled with something like this, now it was almost easy as she rushed upwards and then focused, sending thousands of litres of salt water crashing down into the monster as she leaped over it's head and uncapped Riptide.
She slashed downwards as she fell, blade slicing into the monsters neck- it roared in pain as green blood sprouted from the wound and the serpent sank beneath the waves.
Percy twisted and finished her fall as a dive, surging beneath the water and watching for a moment to make sure it was retreating- better safe than sorry after all, but sea serpents tended to be big babies when it came to being hurt so she doubted it would be causing any more trouble.
When she surfaced Percy spotted Clarisse surfacing not too far away, spluttering and coughing.
Percy willed the water to move her closer to the other girl, grabbing her arm to help her stay above the water. "Did you get that asshole?"
Clarisse shook her head. "The coward disappeared as we were wrestling. But I'm sure we'll see him again. Phobos, too."
Tourists were still running around the ferry in a panic, but it didn't look like anybody was hurt. The boat didn't seem damaged at least, that was a relief, and when Percy managed to get them closer to the boat she saw Rachel moving towards them, peering down into the sea- and she grinned when she spotted them before, moving backwards before a second later she reappeared, sprinting and leaping off the boat, landing with a loud and big splash, surfacing a second later and swimming towards them.
"Are you two okay?" and not for the first time Percy silently thanked the gods for the fact that both of her girlfriends were strong swimmers.
"We're fine." Percy said quickly, "The sea serpent wasn't a problem, he was a big baby really, and Demios is a coward who ran away when Clarisse tried to fight him."
"What do we do now?" Clarisse's voice was slightly hoarse, she'd probably swallowed a fair bit of water Percy decided, and coughed a lot too.
"Do we get back on the boat?"
"No." Percy decided, a frown on her lips, "No, best to go low profile, Rachel can you grab onto me too." and when her girlfriend grabbed onto her arm Percy willed the waves to carry them towards Staten Island, it didn't take long for them to reach the shore- and in the West the sun was going down. Percy grimaced. They were running out of time.
She could see her own worry mirrored in Clarisse and Rachel's expressions so she took a deep breath as they trudged to the shore, and Percy willed herself dry before willing away the water from Clarisse and Rachel, who both relaxed slightly when they dried off.
Of course the problem was that none of them had spent that much time on Staten Island, and it was a lot bigger than Percy had been thinking. The streets curved around, and everything seemed to be uphill.
They managed to get on the bus at least, though as they sat down Percy couldn't help but worry- the three of them against two gods- even minor ones... that wasn't really a fair match. She grimaced and shook her head, running her fingers through her hair as she stared out of the window- Phobos' words kept echoing in her mind.
What would her greatest fear be? She honestly wasn't sure these days. There were so many things- losing her family, her girlfriends.
Alabaster. Gods but she had a lot of things she feared, no amount of therapy could change that.
Thankfully Rachel was better with people than Percy and Clarisse were, and she was the type who'd actually think of asking the bus driver where to go to get to the zoo- Percy really did love her girlfriend, who dragged them both off the bus when their stop came and marched ahead of them determinedly.
As they walked Clarisse gave her a sidelong glance, "How is it that you've somehow found the only other girl who might be able to rival Annabeth in terms of being bossy?"
"What can I say, it's a gift-"
"I can hear you guys you know." Rachel didn't look back at them but her tone was torn between annoyed amusement.
"Oh I know." Clarisse called back, "I just don't care."
Thankfully it wasn't too far of a walk from the bus stop to the zoo- they had to turn a corner and follow a curvy street with some woods on one side until they came to the entrance of the zoo.
The lady at the ticket office did eye them wearily- the trio did look a bit worse for wear- they might have been dried off by Percy but their clothes were all messed up and Clarisse looked as if she'd tried to wrestle a bear- which honestly wasn't too inaccurate, but they had enough money and she didn't exactly have any real grounds to refuse their entry so they were allowed inside, and they decided to stick together for safety- none of them wanted to face the two sons of Ares on their own after all, and the wandered through the reptile house and they made it outside before Clarisse stopped in her tracks.
"There it is." Her voice was tight and she was pointing at it.
It was sitting at a crossroads between the petting zoo and the sea otter pond: a large golden and red chariot tethered to four black horses. The chariot was decorated with amazing detail. It would've been beautiful if all the pictures hadn't shown people dying painful deaths. The horses were breathing fire out of their nostrils.
Families with buggies walked right past the chariot like it didn't exist. The Mist must've been really strong around it, because the chariot's only camouflage was a handwritten note taped to one of the horses' chests that said OFFICIAL ZOO VEHICLE.
"Well, there's the chariot." Rachel muttered, bending down and rolling up her jeans, pulling her dagger from the holster, "The only question is-"
"Where are my brothers." Clarisse finished, a scowl on her lips as she drew her sword.
They weren't anywhere to be seen, but that didn't mean anything with gods.
"We all agree that this is a trap right?"
"A really obvious one." Clarisse gritted her teeth, clearly very pissed off at the entire situation, "But we can't just not try and get it."
"Very true." Percy eyed the horses wearily, "I might be able to talk to the horses." she offered, "Most horses love me-"
"You can try. Not sure if these ones will." Clarisse snorted, "They're not really friendly to people they don't know."
"Hey there-" Percy took a very small step forward, careful not to get too close yet- she didn't feel like getting fried, thank you very much. "Nice fire breathing horses. Do you wanna come here? I could probably get you some doughnuts-"
"You're not feeling my dads horses doughnuts." Clarisse hissed, "Just because you spoil Blackjack rotten doesn't mean you should feed any and all horses you meet with doughnuts."
In any case, it didn't seem like the horses were too interested in sugar cubes based on their reaction to her request for them to come closer.
Percy gaped at them, blinking rapidly before she shifted, hands resting on her hips as she glared at them, "Well there's no need for that sort of language- I might swear like a sailor at times but I'm pretty sure you made up some of those words-" and Rachel let out a choked little laugh as Clarisse groaned.
"Jeeze Jackson, way to act like your mom."
"He was being very rude." she glared at the horse who seemed to be their spokesperson, "I should give them a saltwater bath like I gave the flesh eating horses at the Tripple G ranch." she huffed the words, and she felt somewhat satisfied to see the way the horses shifted almost nervously at that.
Good. They should be nervous.
Clarisse groaned, rolling her eyes, "You're such a weirdo." she shook her head, eyeing the horses, "I'll try to get the reigns. The horses actually know me so they might let me get close even if they don't let you. Cover me?"
"Uh, sure. I can do that." Percy wasn't entirely sure how to cover the other girl but she kept an eye out, and Rachel was looking around wearily too, clutching her dagger tightly as Clarisse approached the chariot, she was almost tiptoeing- if they weren't so tense Percy would probably laughing at the sight of the big girl being so careful.
When a woman and a little girl approached Rachel whistled, a high sharp note that made Clarisse freeze and try to slide out of view as they passed and Percy heard the little girl asking her mom about the flaming pony, though the mom was clearly being effected by the mist- and a moment later they'd passed and Clarisse was moving again.
Any moment and she'd be close enough to grab the reigns.