VI-Percy

Darn, that Annabeth girl was annoying. "I'm so smart. I don't need your help." Percy mimicked Annabeth in a high-pitched voice.

"I'm assuming that's your actual voice? Which you hid from us until now because?"

Percy turned to see Nico and Bianca chuckling. His ears turned red. "No. I mean, there was this annoying girl, she's royalty from back where I'm from, and she is a part of the quest, unfortunately." Percy elaborated on what had happened, realised how weird he sounded. "Shall we go meet them?"

"Them?"

"Oh yeah, the Crown Prince of Olympus is there too, like I said."

"Awesome!" Nico fanboyed. "Lightning-bending gives him a plus fifteen thousand shock resistance and if he can fly- plus ninety thousand evasive manoeuvring. Can he fly?"

Percy shook his head. "Not that I know of." He huffed impatiently. "So are you going to keep spouting stats or can we go?"

Bianca chuckled and grabbed Nico's and Percy's hands, and looked at Percy, signalling him to move on.

Percy, whose ears had shifted from tomato red to now, blood red, literally, nodded. "We-hold-why are we holding hands?"

"Because of the fog, silly. We're going to walk right through it. I have no idea how you navigated through it, but we can't use earth-sight yet. So you'll have to help us." Bianca said, rolling her eyes.

"Ah. Right. Fog. Totally get it." Percy spoke, his voice cracking.

Nico chuckled. "Hey tomato, come on already!"

Percy glared at him and the three of them walked through the fog and debris, Percy thinking all the while about how he had navigated the fog- it was easy, right? Bianca and Nico were near the sea, so all that had gone through his head was that he had to head to the sea. Was that how he had navigated? Could he locate the sea anywhere? That would be nice. Was that something he could just do?

Bianca squeezed Percy's hand. "You're frowning. What are you thinking about?"

"The sea. I mean," Percy added when he realised that didn't make sense, "I navigated through the fog simply because I was heading towards the sea. Must be a water-bender thing."

"It is not."

Percy raised a brow. "No?"

"No. I believe you can find the sea anywhere because it is in you. You are the chosen of Tethys, and not a mere water-bender. The sea is in your heart, and the sea does not like to be restrained." Bianca said, placing a hand above Percy's heart. "Why is your heart beating so quickly?" She asked, frowning.

"No-nothing! No reason, just, uh, after the battle?" Percy yelped.

Nico rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like 'idiots in love' and looked away.

Percy rolled his eyes and looked back at Bianca. "How did you know all that? About water-benders and all that?" he asked, raising a brow.

She shrugged. "I had to learn about the four types of bending arts, you know, back home."

Percy thought about what Bianca had said. "Thanks, Bia. That makes sense. I have the feeling that there is something really powerful in me, but I have no idea how to use or release it. It must be the sea, I guess. When did you get so motivational?"

"Bia?"

Percy rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess it seemed like a nice name. I can call you Bianca, sorry."

Bianca shook her head. "No. I don't mind- it's nice. Earth-benders are the dullest people to be around- sixteen years and none of them had thought that Bianca could be shortened to Bia."

"You're sixteen? Cool. I'm seventeen" Percy replied. "In a few months." he muttered under his breath.

"I heard that." Bianca grinned, and Percy smiled back. "We should almost be back there. Like I said, towards the sea was where you were, so to find Jason and Annabeth, I'm just heading away from it."

"Jason? Annabeth? I knew you said royalty, but I never imagined it was them!"

Percy shrugged. "Well, yeah. There is only one crown Prince of Olympus at a time, you know."

Bianca slapped his arm. "I know, wise man."

Nico wrinkled his nose. "If the two of you are done being cute together, can we pay attention to the fact that we're almost through the fog?"

Percy glared at Nico and looked up. Yep, they were almost through. Time to meet Jason and Annabeth.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward.

"Wait, so you're the crown prince? Can you fly? Do lightning stuff? I bet you can ride air currents, right?"

Percy sighed. Nico fanboying about air-benders was not how he imagined meeting the others would be like, though, to be fair, Nico looked like he could spout out the stats for a random bit of moss on a rock. He noticed Jason sigh and responded slowly. "Yes, for the tenth time, I am the Crown Prince. I cannot fly. I can summon lightning and ride air currents for short durations of time." before he looked towards Percy for help. Percy raised his palms up, he wasn't the one in charge of Nico-that was Bianca.

Bianca.

Why did Percy's gut feel queasy whenever he said that name? He was seventeen, darn it, and on a quest to save the world. He didn't have time to develop feelings towards someone! And to the Princess of the Minoans no less.

Percy decided feelings were annoying.

He glanced towards the right and noticed Bianca and Annabeth talking animatedly about geo-something. All earth-benders loved talking about the Earth, obviously, and Annabeth liked to talk about absolutely anything scientific, which was something beyond Percy. They were discussing 'rock strata' or something, and Annabeth was providing theoretical knowledge while Bianca was talking practically since she probably saw and felt those same formations. Who knew an air-bender could know this much about Earth?

That set Percy thinking. If Annabeth knew so much about earth-benders, maybe she would know more about water-benders too? She was royalty too, so she must have been well educated. And she was freaking Annabeth-she probably studied whenever she could. That was something he would have to ask her, though a bit later. He was still annoyed at her.

"Guys!" Percy yelled, and stopped abruptly, when, contrary to his expectations, everyone stopped talking and looked at him. He gulped, suddenly nervous in the presence of four royals-though he was apparently royalty himself, he had never been raised that way. "We can catch up once we've decided where to head to. Any ideas?" he asked, looking pointedly at Annabeth.

Annabeth shook her head. "Seaweed brain, if you're asking me, there are limitless possibilities. We could head South, towards Mount Etna, where Typhon is asleep. We might find a fire-bender camp there, and whoever is trying to wake Typhon up."

Percy's jaw dropped. "Seaweed brain? Etna? How did you know Typhon was waking up?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You are a seaweed-for-brains and that question proves it. You do know that you're not the only person the Primordials speak to, right? Jupiter heard from Ventus too."

Percy nodded. "Okay, so South, then? I suppose we could head down until we see a village or something of some sort. Maybe a city? Hopefully not a fire-bender camp."

Bianca shuddered. "We can stay well away from those."

Percy nodded. He hadn't met a fire-bender so far, but he was trying to keep it that way for as long as possible. "Okay then. So,uh, let's go?" Percy asked, and no one moved. They were all looking at him. "What?" he asked.

"How are we supposed to go? And for how long? Where do we stop? Do you ever plan anything?"

"Well, Wisegirl, we can plan on the way." Percy snapped. "Unless you have a better plan?"

Annabeth nodded. "Of course I do. We should head as close to Mount Etna as possible, try to stir up the fire nation camp, which would lead to Drakon flying by fearing Typhon has awoken, and then Seaweed brain over here" she gestured dismissively with her hand at Percy, "can do his water-bending thing."

Percy frowned. While he did not like her constantly underestimating him, he had to admit- Annabeth was smart. "Did you figure all that out just now? And what do you mean,'my water-bending thing?" he asked.

"Maybe. And I meant your connection to Drakon. Even if he's not ready for it, the urgency of the situation would force him to bond with you." Annabeth answered, smiling.

"Damn. You are scary smart. Remind me not to get on your wrong side."

"Then shut up and let's move already!" Annabeth retorted, though she was smiling at the compliment.

Percy sighed, and nodded. He turned to Jason, who had, strangely, been quiet the whole time. "Hey, man, I guess you could take Annabeth with you on-er-Tempest?" Percy asked, remembering the name Jason had given him. Jason nodded. "Sure. I suppose you'll take Nico and Bianca with you on Blackjack?"

Blackjack had other plans. His first reaction when Percy had asked him before was "No way boss! I'm a high breed Pegasus, built for speed, not a workhorse! How do you expect me to carry three people?"

Percy sighed. "We'll see."

Fortunately, Blackjack could take the three of them, but, after Jason and Annabeth had left on Tempest, with Jason nodding and Annabeth shouting down, "Don't dawdle here!", Blackjack added that he would have to transform.

Great.

Percy sighed. He had no idea how Bianca and Nico would react to a hippocampus.

"Go ahead, then." He told Blackjack, who snorted and ran towards the sea, before swooping up, and diving vertically down.

The waters were eerily silent.

Nico whistled. "I don't annoy him that much, do I? How are we going to go now if-"

He cut himself off with a scream when a Hippocampus, quite a bit larger than a Pegasus, reared up from above the water, splashing the trio with salt water as he descended.

"Percy! Get out of there!" Bianca frantically called out to Percy, who was closer to the Hippocampus than either of them.

"Relax guys, it's just Blackjack."

Percy instantly regretted saying that.

"JUST Blackjack? JUST? Boss, I'm a freaking chimeric Hippocampus!"

"Blackjack? Couldn't you have, I don't know, mentioned that he was chimeric?"

Percy threw his hands up in the air. "Guys! I've not seen Blackjack in chimeric form before either! Please, can we just go?"

Nico glared at him and looked up at Blackjack, who reached his long neck out of the water, and licked his face, smearing water and saliva all over it. Percy and Bianca laughed as Nico frowned. "I'll admit-your stats are awesome. Nineteen thousand fire resistance? Twenty five thousand speed in water? Awesome." Blackjack tossed his head, and lowered it for Nico to climb on.

Percy glanced at Bianca. "So, you first?"

"No you."

"Please! Ladies first."

"If you don't shut up and go first I will punch you."

Percy rolled his eyes, and walked up to Blackjack, before jumping up and mounting him- which was easier than mounting a Pegasus, since most of the Hippocampus' body was underwater.

Percy noted that Bianca looked nervous as she sat down on Blackjack behind him.

"Are you alright?" Percy asked her, concerned.

She looked white in the face, but nodded.

"Bianca hates water, you know. She nearly drowned once." Nico interjected.

Oh.

"You guys know I will die before I let anything happen to any of you, right?"

"We sure do." came the chorus of replies. "And you'd better."

Percy chuckled. "You guys are the best. Er...What ho! Blackjack!" Percy shouted, imagining that was how you asked a Hippocampus to move forward.

Blackjack snickered. "Hold on tight!"

If you thought Pegasi and Griffins were fast, wait till you meet a Hippocampus, Percy thought, as Blackjack swept past the shore, the ocean leaving a trail of white behind him.

A/N: Another update :)

The story progression and telling gets better from here, I think. Thank you Tigerhawk (guest reviewer) for the review, that guess is spot on, don't tell anyone though ;)

Tornado Aykay (guest reviewer) thank you for that review! I don't think Percy is a Mary-Sue here, he definitely will never become powerful enough to be a Gary-Sue ever, don't worry. I'm not sure about Clarisse-she wasn't included in the original plot for the series so it would be hard to add her in now, but we'll see. Sure, more Nico-you'll even see a chapter from his POV, don't worry :)

Thanks a lot for the review, ThatOneDude (guest reviewer). Perianca is a great ship :) This book will be Perianca for sure.

All reviews are appreciated!

-HP

Hope you enjoy this update, there are more to come!
-SOTW