Chapter 24:
While Percy and Annabeth were trying to avoid Tantalus from giving them dish-washing duty, Markus was talking with Silena at the Aphrodite table, having been invited by her. While Markus was happy to talk to Silena, he wasn't happy that he had to sit at a table that had... ugh, pink. Plus, Silena's siblings weren't like her. They were vain, chatty and so fucking annoying. Seriously, if he had to hear the boys talk about how good they looked, or what girl they found cute, or how the girls liked to put on their dozen layers of make-up, he planned to kill himself. The boy that he punched from before was trying to glare at him angrily, but wilted when Markus merely looked at him. He smirked when he saw that.
That's right, bitch, Markus thought to himself, cackling like a madman in his mind. Fear me.
Tantalus tried to punish Markus for punching him in the face during the chariot race, but Markus didn't go to any of them. Mr. D didn't make too much of a fuss, and Markus definitely didn't fear Tantalus, so he didn't get punished. When he tried to go to Markus to punish him personally, Markus just raised his fist threateningly. Tantalus winced, his wound acting up in remembrance. Hell, his nose looked like a squashed grape, making Markus, and everyone who saw it, laugh.
Ahhh, it's so nice to have a good whipped bitch, Markus thought to himself gleefully, a sadistic smile on his face. Now, I just need to teach him tricks and I'm happy.
A snapping sound in front of him snapped him out of his fantasies. "Oi, Markus. Save your thoughts of embarrassing Tantalus later," Silena said, annoyed. "Tell me what you were saying before the chariot race."
"How the hell did you know what I was thinking?" Markus asked, puzzled. He wasn't going to deny what he was thinking, but was wondering on how she knew what he was thinking.
"Oh, please," Silena scoffed, a small smile on her face. "Your expression was predictable." Markus' face turned to shock. Him? Predictable? Bullshit. "But anyway,what were you saying when you said 'nothing'?"
Markus sighed. He had no problem telling her. It was just that he didn't want the knowledge becoming public. Call him paranoid, but he wasn't eager about everyone knowing about his friend's situation. Sure, he was sitting at the Aphrodite table, where the other Aphrodite kids might overhear them, but he needed someone to talk to about this.
So he decided to tell her, her siblings overhearing the conversation. He had told them about his dream about Grover and the table was in deep thought. Most of them did not know the Grover that well and could not give him an answer. Silena spoke up though. "Maybe he found something. I'm not sure because I really don't know. Your best bet to go and ask Mr. D about it."
Markus scoffed. "And get rebuffed? Hell no. My best bet would be to pressure Tantalus into issuing a quest. He'll likely pick Clarisse as the one who leads it. And as much as I hate Clarisse, I want to save Grover."
"Clarisse isn't that bad," Silena said with a frown. "She's a bit gruff, but you can depend on her in most situations."
"Oh, yeah. You guys are actually best friends," Markus commented. He frowned in thought. "Still don't see it."
"We just clicked," Silena said with a shrug, confusing Markus. How the hell did those two click? Silena was nice, friendly and pleasant to be around. Clarisse was... Clarisse. "I can convince her to take you along the quest. I know it might cause difficulties, but if it comes down to it, please get along with her."
"More like hates my guts..." Markus muttered after she had spoken, causing Silena to reach forward and swat his arm angrily. "But thank you. You'll need a miracle to pull it off, but thank you."
"No problem," she smiled, ignoring the teasing looks her siblings were giving her. Markus was doing the same thing as well.
XXX
That night at the campfire, Apollo's cabin led the sing-along. They tried to get everybody' spirits up, but it wasn't easy after that afternoon's bird attack. They all sat around a semicircle of stone steps, singing halfheartedly and watching the bonfire blaze while the Apollo guys strummed their guitars and picked their lyres.
They did all the standard camp numbers: "Down by the Aegean," "I Am My Own Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa," "This Land is Minos's Land." The bonfire was enchanted, so the louder you sang, the higher it rose, changing colour and heat with the mood of the crowd.
Dionysus left early. After suffering through a few songs, he muttered something about how even pinochle with Chiron had been more exciting than this. Then he gave Tantalus a distasteful look and headed back toward the Big House.
When the last song was over, Tantalus said, "Well, that was lovely!" When he spoke, a few campers snickered. Because of the punch Markus had given him, his voice sounded a bit nasally. Coupled with his squashed nose, he sounded like one of the dwarfs from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Who was it... Grumpy? No. Dopey? No, that wasn't it...
He came forward with a toasted marshmallow on a stick and tried to pluck it off, real casual-like. But before he could touch it, the marshmallow flew off the stick. Tantalus made a wild grab, but the marshmallow committed suicide, diving into the flames. That actually had Markus chuckling. He didn't even need to prank the man to make fun of him. He did that perfectly on his own.
Tantalus turned back toward the group, smiling coldly. "Now then! Some announcements about tomorrow's schedule."
"Sir." Percy cut in, making Markus give him a knowing look.
Tantalus's eye twitched. "Our kitchen boy has something to say?"
"Said the one with the squashed tomato on his face," Markus muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear.
All of the campers laughed at that while Tantalus turned to Markus with a furious expression. Markus just raised his fist in a punching gesture, making Tantalus flinch. That got some to laugh even harder.
After getting rid of his laughter, Percy looked ready to say what he had to say. He stood and looked at Annabeth. Thank the gods, she stood up with him. He then looked to Markus and he nodded. Markus knew what was going on and was pushing for Percy to come out it with already. He had to smile at that. "We have an idea to save the camp."
Dead silence, but He could tell he had gotten everybody's interest, because the campfire flared bright yellow.
"Indeed," Tantalus said blandly. "Well, if it has anything to do with chariots-"
"The Golden Fleece," Percy said. "We know where it is."
The flames burned orange. Before Tantalus could stop him, he blurted out the dream about Grover and Polyphemus's island, with Naruto confirming because he was connected as well. Annabeth stepped in and reminded everybody what the Fleece could do. It sounded more convincing coming from her.
"The Fleece can save the camp," she concluded. "I'm certain of it."
"Nonsense," said Tantalus. "We don't need saving." Everybody stared at him until Tantalus started looking uncomfortable. "Man, are you high?" Markus asked with a raised eyebrow, getting some campers to snicker at his comment.
"Besides," the man added quickly, "the Sea of Monsters? That's hardly an exact location. You wouldn't even know where to look."
"Actually we do." Markus said, getting a smirk from Percy.
"You do?" Annabeth asked.
"Yeah, you can thank the Grey Sisters for that. Tell them Percy."
Percy smiled. It seemed that Markus knew what he was talking about. He should have known. "30, 31, 75, 12,"
"Ooo-kay," Tantalus said. "Thank you for sharing those meaningless numbers."
"They're sailing coordinates," Percy said. "Latitude and longitude. I, uh, learned about it in social studies." Annabeth looked impressed and so was Markus. Percy actually knew something smart? "30 degrees, 31 minutes north, 75 degrees, 12 minutes west. They're right! The Gray Sisters gave us those coordinates. That'd be somewhere in the Atlantic, off the coast of Florida. The Sea of Monsters. We need a quest!"
"Wait just a minute," Tantalus said.
But the campers took up the chant. "We need a quest! We need a quest!"
The flames rose higher.
"It isn't necessary!" Tantalus insisted.
"WE NEED A QUEST! WE NEED A QUEST!"
"You can't escape this, Tantalus." Markus said with a smirk, which made the man's eye twitch because that was right.
"Fine!" Tantalus shouted, his eyes blazing with anger. "You brats want me to assign a quest?"
"YES!"
"Very well," he agreed. "I shall authorise a champion to undertake this perilous journey, to retrieve the Golden Fleece and bring it back to camp. Or die trying."
Finally they were getting somewhere. Percy looked happy about that. Markus smiled. He didn't even care if he wasn't going on the quest. At least progress was made. Though he did wish that he was on the quest so he could save Grover.
"I will allow our champion to consult the Oracle!" Tantalus announced. "And choose two companions for the journey. And I think the choice of champion is obvious."
Tantalus looked at Annabeth, Percy, and Markus as if he wanted to flay them alive. "The champion should be one who has earned the camp's respect, who has proven resourceful in the chariot races and courageous in the defence of the camp. You shall lead this quest... Clarisse!"
Markus rolled his eyes. Tantalus was so predictable.
The fire flickered a thousand different colors. The Ares cabin started stomping and cheering, "CLARISSE! CLARISSE!" Markus quirked an eyebrow. He wondered if Silena was able to pull through for him.
Clarisse stood up, looking stunned. Then she swallowed, and her chest swelled with pride. "I accept the quest!"
"Wait!" Percy shouted. "Grover is my friend. The dream came to me and Markus!"
"Sit down!" yelled one of the Ares campers. "You had your chance last summer!"
"Yeah, he just wants to be in the spotlight again!" another said.
Clarisse glared at Percy. "I accept the quest!" she repeated. "I, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, will save the camp!"
The Ares campers cheered even louder. Annabeth protested, and the other Athena campers joined in. Everybody else started taking sides - shouting and arguing and throwing marshmallows. Markus sighed and kept quiet as he observed the scene.
Tantalus shouted, "Silence, you brats!" The tone he used creeped out Markus and stunned Percy.
Sit down!" he ordered. "And I will tell you a ghost story." Markus narrowed his eyes. He knew that this wasn't going to be a simple ghost story. It sounded dangerous, just from hearing the tone of the man.
"Once upon a time there was a mortal king who was beloved of the gods!" Tantalus put his hand on his chest, and many got the feeling he was talking about himself.
"This king," he said, "was even allowed to feast on Mount Olympus. But when he tried to take some ambrosia and nectar back to earth to figure out the recipe - just one little doggie bag, mind you - the gods punished him. They banned him from their halls forever! His own people mocked him! His children scolded him! And, oh yes, campers, he had horrible children. Children - just - like - you."
He pointed a crooked finger at several people in the audience, including Markus and Percy.
"Do you know what he did to his ungrateful children?" Tantalus asked softly. "Do you know how he paid back the gods for their cruel punishment? He invited the Olympians to a feast at his palace, just to show there were no hard feelings. No one noticed that his children were missing. And when he served the gods dinner, my dear campers, can you guess what was in the stew?"
No one dared answer. The firelight glowed dark blue, reflecting evilly on Tantalus's crooked face. Markus looked disgusted at what the man did to his own flesh and blood.
"Oh, the gods punished him in the afterlife," Tantalus croaked. "They did indeed. But he'd had his moment of satisfaction, hadn't he? His children never again spoke back to him or questioned his authority. And do you know what? Rumour has it that the king's spirit now dwells at this very camp, waiting for a chance to take revenge on ungrateful, rebellious children. And so... are there any more complaints, before we send Clarisse off on her quest?"
Silence. That was what filled the air for a few seconds. Naturally Markus, who refused to show fear - least of all to Tantalus, of all people - decided to step up.
He cupped his hands to his mouth and spoke loudly. "Boooo!" His speech made a few people jump at the large sound, but Markus ignored them. "Booo, I say. Was that supposed to be a horror story? That was pathetic!" He called out with a thumbs-down gesture. "If I wanted to hear this kind of shit, I could of gone down to the Underworld and asked Hades, the undead bastard that he is, a fucking knock-knock joke, and still get a better reaction than the ones we have!"
The ground rumbled at Markus' comment about Hades, but he ignored it. A few campers looked scared at what Markus had just said. A few others, seeing the reason why he was doing this, nodded encouragingly, seemingly gaining strength from his courage. Or display of brass balls, whichever one you preferred. A few others, namely ones from the Hermes cabin, laughed loudly at his declaration, filling the previously silent atmosphere with laughter.
Markus smiled, seeing his ploy work. Tantalus glared at him heavily for his actions, as if he was going to eat Markus himself. "You... are a very annoying brat," he decided to say. He sneered. "Better be careful, boy. Otherwise you'll be the one who becomes my dinner at some point." He bared his yellow and grimy teeth at Markus.
Markus raised an eyebrow, not impressed. "Oh? So the bitch can continue yapping? How cute. Guess I just need to whip him even more to get him to heel like a good puppy." Tantalus snarled at his response like an actual dog. Markus just smiled and gave him the middle finger, causing some "Ooohs" to erupt from the crowd.
Tantalus turned to Clarisse stiffly, as if he didn't just get his ass handed to him verbally. "The Oracle, my dear." he said, gritting his teeth. "Go on."
She shifted uncomfortably, like even she didn't want glory at the price of being Tantalus's pet. However, she got a few words out. "I… plan on taking... Markus with me." She said the last part reluctantly, as if she was forced to get the words out.
Huh, Silena managed to make it work. Markus planned to thank her at some point.
"GO!" Tantalus snarled, not happy.
She bowed awkwardly and hurried off toward the Big House, but not before motioning, reluctantly, for Markus to follow her. Sighing, he stood up, but not before zooming to where Silena was, giving her a big hug that caused her to squeak in surprise, and then zoomed off to join Clarisse in following her. If he'd looked back, Markus could've seen Katie's jealous look towards Silena, who was still blushing at what Markus had done.
However, Markus did hear what Tantalus had to say next.
"What about you, Percy Jackson?" Tantalus asked. "No comments from our dishwasher?"
There was no answer. It seemed he was not going to give this sick… monster the satisfaction of an answer. Markus smiled at that. He motioned for Clarisse to go on ahead, making her grunt.
"Good," Tantalus said. "And let me remind everyone - no one leaves this camp without my permission. Anyone who tries ... well, if they survive the attempt, they will be expelled forever, but it won't come to that. The harpies will be enforcing curfew from now on, and they are always hungry! Good night, my dear campers. Sleep well."
With a wave of Tantalus's hand, the fire was extinguished, and the campers trailed off toward their cabins in the dark.
Markus walked up to his brother, who was standing up and ready to go to the Poseidon cabin. "So what are you going to do now?"
Percy looked to his brother. He could not help but feel a little jealous. Markus was going on the quest to save the camp and he wasn't. Both of them had the same dream, so why was he the only one who was picked to go with Clarisse? But he didn't feel that way for long because he didn't want to cause another fight with his brother. Despite Markus' nonchalant attitude, he knew that he was still disappointed with him about Tyson. Now that he thought about it, he guessed that he was a... blind dumbass, as Markus would say. He knew that what he did was unjustified, and planned to resolve that.
A snapping sound snapped Percy out of his thoughts. "Yo. Earth to Blue Boy. You still there?" Markus asked him.
Percy smiled, more amused than annoyed at his brother calling him by his nickname. "I don't know what I'm going to do," he said.
"You know, I won't stop you," Markus said. "I know you are stubborn, and want to help the camp, and you want to save Grover. If you go and we find you, I got your back."
Percy smiled. He was glad to have a brother with him. Especially Markus. "Thanks, bro. And I... uh, I want to apologize about what happened. With Tyson."
Markus' face stayed blank for a while, making Percy worry a bit. And then he smiled. "So you finally came out with it? That's good. But apologize to Tyson, not me. Then we're good." With that, Markus gave him a brief 'brotherly' hug, and then zipped away.
XXX
Clarisse looked a bit scared after the tale that Tantalus told them about and walking at night to the Big House where the creepy Oracle lived would make anyone scare shitless. Then she saw Markus waiting for her, and her fear disappeared. Well, almost. "Don't think I did this for you, punk," Clarisse said with a sneer. Ah. That was the Clarisse that he knew and hated. "The only reason I'm taking you along is because Silena convinced me."
"And it was common sense," Markus added. "I'm a son of Poseidon. The Golden Fleece is in the Sea of Monsters. It was a no brainer."
Clarisse's pig-like glare showed that she didn't want to admit that fact. "Yes, that," she grit out.
Markus shrugged. "That's cool. You can take the credit for retrieving the Fleece. I just want to save Grover."
Clarisse blinked at that, as if she didn't expect Markus to say that. Then she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "You saying that you don't care about camp?" she growled out.
Markus sighed in exasperation, shaking his head. "No, that's not it. I do want to save camp. All I'm saying is that since it's your quest, you get the credit. I do want to save camp, but I also want to rescue Grover."
"Oh," Clarisse blinked. And then her usual sneer returned to her face, because why not? "Good. At least you know what's going on." Markus rolled his eyes at that. Can't she just say 'thank you'? Then again, she wouldn't be Clarisse if she did. Why were her and Silena friends again?
Then both of them noticed that were at the door to the Oracle. Clarisse took a deep breath and said, "Here goes nothing."
Markus tried offering a quip to lighten the mood, but then decided not to. He opened the door for her and they both went in. The boy felt a chill run up his spine. The Oracle freaked him out the first time he went with Percy, and now he had to deal with it again.
Markus didn't want to describe how the Oracle looked. She looked the exact same as last time. Once again the green mist spewed out of the Oracle's mouth and it turned into the image of Ares. He was already not liking this.
Then the image of Ares started speaking in the voice of the Oracle:
You shall sail the iron ships with warrior's of bone,
You shall find what you seek and make it your own,
But despair for your life entombed within stone,
And fail without friends, to fly home alone.
When the Oracle finished, 'Ares' faded away into green mist, which returned into the mouth of the Oracle. When it was over, the two quickly made their way out of the Big House and to the circle of cabins. Markus turned to Clarisse. He could see that, despite the brave face she put on, she was nervous, even scared. He could relate with her. Seeing the Oracle was one thing. Hearing it speak was a whole new thing altogether.
He couldn't comfort her; Clarisse wasn't that type of girl. He didn't know her well enough to encourage her with words. Sighing, he decided to focus on the quest. More specifically transportation. "So how do you plan on us getting to the Sea of Monsters? It's your quest."
Clarisse turned to Markus with an incredulous look on her face, as if she couldn't believe he could ask that after seeing the Oracle. But then she was able to school her features, and Markus could almost detect a grateful look on her face. It was as if she could tell that he was deliberately changing the subject for her. "Don't worry about it, Marcie. I'll take care of it. Just because your dad's the god of the sea doesn't mean I can't get us a ride. Poseidon's not the only one with ways across the sea."
"Markus," he corrected, almost on reflex. Now he knew that she was back to her old self. He waved his hand dismissively. "I trust you to get it sorted. We'll meet at Half-Blood Hill in the morning. I'll pack my stuff, and I trust that you'll get yours. Until then."
Clarisse nodded, looking a bit shocked. Markus guessed that she was a little surprised that he trusted her to do her thing. Markus already knew that, even though Clarisse was a bitch at almost all times, she wanted to save camp as much as him. So he wasn't worried about her doing things half-assed. "Got it. Night, punk."
Markus waved goodnight to her, heading towards the Poseidon cabin to sleep. He already knew Percy was going on without them, so he wasn't concerned about saying bye. He just curled up in his bed and slept.
XXX
The next morning, everyone found out that Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson had apparently run away from camp in the middle of the night.
Markus wasn't surprised at this, since he had suspected the two demigods to run off, though he didn't expect Tyson to go with them as well. He hoped that the young cyclopes was alright.
A disgruntled Mr. D said if they came back, he'd turn them into squirrels and run them over in an SUV.
Markus wasn't really worried, because he knew that the group would be alright. Well, partially. Okay, he was extremely worried. But he was more worried with packing his stuff for the quest. He received Beowulf from Beckendorf, which was finished. The forger said that he'd get all the other weapons ready. Markus thanked him profusely, and even supplied the guy with a couple of drachma.
He then went to the Hecate campers, who charmed the weapon to make it almost similar to how it was in the Devil May Cry games, with his description, of course. Alabaster even charmed Beowulf with strengthening and resistant charms, as well as helping Markus put runes on Beowulf, with 'Φως', meaning 'Light', on the sides of the arms and legs. However, Alabaster wrote the runes a bit differently than Markus did. He added light absorption runes and charms that Markus had no idea about. Sometimes that he forgot how gifted Alabaster was in the arcane arts.
Lou was even able to give him a book on a guide to charms, to keep him occupied during the quest. Markus thanked her profusely for that (A.N. - The runes used in the fic are identical to the ones used in Harry Potter. And yes, I plan on using most, if not all of them).
Now Markus was sitting at the Poseidon table in the mess hall, chowing down on some early breakfast. He also planned to sneak some more food with him in his rucksack. He didn't want things to happen like it did during his first quest, where their supplies were destroyed from Zeus' bolt. Thanks, uncle.
Shrugging, Markus put on his aviator jacket, slung on his rucksack and headed down to the docks. They were heading out to the Sea of Monsters after all, it only made sense that that's where he'd find Clarisse. Well that and it was where the few other early morning risers were streaming towards.
Waiting at the docks was quite possibly the strangest ship Markus had ever seen. It rode low in the water like a submarine, its deck was plated with iron and at the halfway point of its hull was a trapezoid-shaped casemate with slats on each side for cannons. It flew a flag emblazoned with a wild boar and spear on a blood red field. Lining the deck were zombies soldiers with shimmering faces that only partially covered their skulls, like the ghouls he'd seen in the Underworld guarding Hades' palace.
Along its moss covered prow was the ship's faded name, CSS Birmingham.
Markus whistled. He'd never been on a ship, which was kind of embarrassing, being the son of Poseidon. But he could appreciate a nice vessel when he saw one.
Clarisse, decked out in full Greek battle armour, was barking orders at the undead sailors as they prepared the vessel.
"Damn," he whistled in appreciation. "Where'd you get this?" he asked loudly, pushing his way through the crowd of awed campers.
Hearing him, Clarissed turned and with clear pride explained."This is a gift from my father, Ares, to help with my quest. It's an ironclad, a Civil War battle cruiser. It'll be our transportation to the Sea of Monsters."
"And the zombies?"
"The spirits of the defeated. Serving my father in the afterlife is their curse for losing in war."
"That sounds nice," Markus replied sarcastically. Clarisse seemed to ignore what he said, and instead turned her gaze to the ship, still looking on with pride.
"You got all you needed?" she asked. Markus nodded. "Yep. Rearin' and ready to go." Then Markus turned to look around, searching for their third member. "Hey, where's the third quester?"
Clarisse just shifted uncomfortably, before replying in a strained voice. "There isn't one. We don't need one. Besides, the more campers to defend camp, the better."
Markus just raised his eyebrows, skeptical. "Really?"
"Yes, now quit questioning me, Henderson, we're losing sunlight!"
"Not leaving without getting our blessing, are we?" Tantalus said as he and Mr. D strolled up.
Markus cursed. He'd wished he could make it without having to see either of the two. But he guessed he just wasn't that lucky.
"You mean mine," Mr. D said.
"O-Of course, Lord Dionysus. Your blessing." Tantalus said deferentially.
Markus was ignoring them. He was reading his charms book and was looking up all the different charms that could be used. Oooh, a banishing charm? That sounded fun. He quickly memorized how to perform it. He was always a quick study when it came to magic, since he loved it so much.
"Though I don't see why I should possibly bless anyone in this crowd."
"I feel the love, Mr. D," Markus muttered sarcastically, still nose-deep into his book.
The god seemed to ignore his comment. "Well, let's get this over with. We're wasting precious time here as we stand."
"Too true, Lord Dionysus."
"Are you going to polish his shoes next? I think I see a speck of dust there," Markus commented, not even looking up from his book. Huh, he was like that character from Naruto. Who was it... Kakashi? Yeah, that was it.
Tantalus turned to glare at him, but Markus continued to ignore him, still reading his book. "I especially hope that you die painfully out there, boy," the man snarled.
"Mmhmm. Fuck you too, fuckface."
Tantalus balked at the language used, as well as the rest of the campers around.
"Markus, wait!" A voice shouted from the crowd.
Markus actually looked up from his book to look at who was calling him. He saw that Silena was squeezing her way through the crowd, with Katie following her. It warmed his heart to see his close friends wishing him off. Though, he did feel slightly guilty of not seeing Katie as much. He did visit her most of the time, but not as much as Silena.
The daughter of Aphrodite gave him a dazzling smile. "Just wanted to wish you luck." She gave Markus a firm hug, surprising Markus. He didn't think she was going to miss him this much. But why did she seem, desperate? As if she was actually saying goodbye?
When she removed herself from the hug, Markus turned up to look at her face. She seemed almost guilty, like she did something that she now regretted. But what?
Markus saw Silena mouth something to herself. I'm sorry. Sorry for what? What did she do?
Katie stepped forward and also gave Markus a hug, this time with no guilty expression on her face. Markus hugged her back, seeing her smile and wish him good luck. This made Markus smile as well.
"Are you done, girls?" Tantalus said dismissively, "They do have to leave you know." His tone was mocking.
Katie turned to slightly glare at the activities director. But for some reason, that was too much for Silena and she burst into tears. She started to rub her eyes. "I know, I'm sorry." She let out a sob. "I just I... I messed up."
Markus, and everyone really, were taken aback by this. Hell, Mr. D raised an eyebrow in surprise. The only one unaffected was Tantalus who just looked on unmoved.
Markus stepped forward to comfort her, but she stepped back, shaking her head. "It's okay... It's alright." Beckendorf walked forward, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to take her back to her cabin. Markus nodded in thanks to Beckendorf, who nodded back. He was asking her what was wrong and offering encouragement that whatever it was couldn't be that bad, but that just seemed to make Silena cry harder.
"Yes, yes," Tantalus waved his hand in their direction. "Take the bawling mess out of here."
Markus leveled a sharp look to Tantalus. He could take him being a dick before, but this? Tantalus just fucked up, and Markus was going to give him his just desserts.
"Alright, fuck this!" Markus exclaimed, turning fully to Tantalus, who raised an eyebrow. Markus grinnned menacingly, making a shiver run down the man's back. "I've already had enough of your shit. So, bye bye!" Markus held up his hand, and performed the charm that he just learned. "Exilium: Inferis! (Banish: the Underworld!)"
White mist started to appear from Tantalus' feet, startling him. "W-what is this?" he yelled out, shocked. The mist started to come up to his ankles, then his shins, thighs, waist, and up to his chest. The mist kept on coming upwards.
Markus smiled deviously. "Oh, just a banishment charm! Nifty little thing. Say hi to Uncle Hades for me, 'kay?" Waving his hand mockingly, Markus saw the white mist envelop Tantalus completely, breaking down his essence into little particles that seeped into the ground. In under a minute, there was nothing left of the former king.
Markus smirked. The banishment charm, the one he used, worked mostly for spirits of the damned. Actual physical objects or people were much harder to do, and took a large amount of magic. Just banishing Tantalus took up quite a bit of strength, but he stood straight. The charm was written in Latin, as most charms were written in. Oh, he was going to have so much fun with charms!
It was silent for a beat until all the campers broke out into cheers. Hell, even the undead sailors were clapping, awed at such a good show. Mr. D though was the exception. He just looked annoyed, as he always did.
"You didn't even banish him right. It took much too long. Honestly, boy," he heaved a sigh. "I had a glorious idea. Now I have to drag him back up." The campers looked horrified at that. "But I want to nap first, so as you say; whatever."
Clarisse looked... dare Markus say it, impressed. "Not bad, Henderson. Now you're almost tolerable if you keep pulling stuff out like that."
"Almost tolerable?" Markus asked with a raised eyebrow. He just banished a spirit to the Underworld. A low level spirit, sure, but still! That was something noteworthy! He did not deserve a 'barely tolerable'.
"Can you lot just leave already?" Mr. D grunted, glaring at the two with bloodshot eyes.
"Oh, right," Markus said slowly with a blink. "Sorry, forgot you were there."
Mr. D looked like he was about to say something, probably to curse him, but Markus reacted quicker. He grabbed Clarisse by the shoulder and bolted towards the ship. "Well, all aboard!" Clarisse took the hint and quickly began issuing orders to her undead sailors to set sail even as the questers rushed on board the ironclad.
Within a matter of minutes (with Markus not turned into a dolphin and/or driven insane) two demigods and a whole skeletal crew were on their way.
Off to the Sea of Monsters!
XXX
The start of the long journey wasn't so bad, if you didn't count Markus getting annoyed at the undead sailors.
The reason was because he found that that, because he was a son of Poseidon, he almost instinctively knew how to operate a ship. How to pull the sail, how to operate an astrolabe, all of it. Huh, another cool power.
It started off like this:
At the start of the journey, Markus walked over the the zombie plotting the course and frowned. "That's wrong," Markus said grabbing the map from the zombie's hand along with the astrolabe, a lens attached to a big circular disk with several measurements on it.
"Excuse me" the zombie said, "but I do believe I am the sailing master on this ship. and I know that I am completely-"
"-Incompetent," Markus finished for him. "This isn't the tool you need by the way," he added, throwing the astrolabe to the side before picking up a sextant that was lying next to the captain zombie. "This is what you need."
Markus then began using the navigational tool and rewrote the entire map plotting the right course to the Sea of Monsters. All the knowledge of the sea flowed into him like second nature, and in a way it was. Markus completely understood everything, the current's the wind patterns, where to go and what to avoid, everything. He never knew that he had a useful power like this. He'd make a damn good sailor.
When he finished, he turned to Clarisse, tossing her the map. "Here, follow the instructions I wrote down exactly."
Clarisse looked at the map, stunned. She then looked up at him. "How the hell do you know all of this?!"
Markus shrugged. "Son of the sea god. Told you it was a no-brainer taking me along. The quest would go to hell without me, admit it."
Clarisse looked reluctant, but agreed that having him on board would be useful.
Oh, and the other reason the undead hated him was because he was from New York, born and raised. Well, the raised part was a little questionable, but still. They even called him a dirty Yankee. Markus figured out that they hated that fact was because they were Confederates. Dead Confederates, but that still counted.
As the ship continued to set sail, Clarisse had told Markus to find a hammock. Plopping his bag on the hammock he picked out, he returned to the deck to find the old ship seemed to be riding pretty smoothly.
Markus headed over to the rail to lean against it. Watching the rocking of the waves, Markus could already tell that he would enjoy watching them. It was weird: he'd never seen actual waves on a ship before, and he could already tell that he felt right at him, being a son of the sea. He felt relaxed, as if he was lying in a bed, asleep. Markus intended to get more moments like this. When was the last time he actually relaxed?
And then he remembered that he was on a quest to save camp. To save Grover. Immediately, he felt himself get serious. To focus on the task at hand, because it felt too relaxing watching the sea, he decided to train.
"Henderson!" Clarisse's voice barked from the bridge. "Front and center!"
Markus sighed. Just when he was about to do something productive. Going through the ship up to the door to the bridge, and ignoring the undead glaring at him for being a Yank, Markus entered the bridge.
He saw Clarisse looking over a bunch of old maps as she told the skeleton at the wheel what they were possibly going to run into.
"Hey, you need me to do something?" The child of Poseidon asked.
Clarisse looked up from her maps. "Yeah, we've got another day until we're near Florida. I want to talk to you about how this is going to work." She took a seat and nudged her chin, indicating for jim to do the same.
Taking the seat, Clarisse began to talk strategy. It was something he'd expect more from Annabeth, but it seemed Clarisse was good at this stuff too. She had some good ideas on how the two of them could work together, like how she wanted Markus to go for both long-ranged and close combat for most of the enemies, while she dealt with them herself. For the first five minutes, Markus was nodding in agreement to what was being said. But then she started to rattle off ideas like shock and awe and guerilla tactics. Things that Markus couldn't understand. Markus understood the importance of strategy, but he was more of a go-in-guns-blazing kind of guy. He wasn't much of a thinker fighter. Sure, he could come up with ideas on the fly that were good, but still ended up with him punching problems.
"And that's it. Got it?"
"Yes," he nodded, even if he didn't get it.
Clarisse's eye bored into hers, she shook her head a little disbelievingly, but nodded anyway. "Good, go up to the deck and keep an eye out for any monsters would you? Your magic could come in useful for that."
Markus raised an eyebrow. "In the observation deck?"
Clarisse nodded. Sighing, Markus made his way to the observation deck, taking over the post from one sailor, relieving him of his services. With a sigh, Markus resigned himself to his new position. Honestly, he was the fucking son of Poseidon? So why the hell was he taking post at the top when he should be on the deck, taking control of the whole ship?
Markus sighed. Maybe he shouldn't have convinced Silena to let him go on the quest.
XXX
Markus was now on the deck, drawing some plans for the future.
After a couple of hours in the observation deck, Markus grew bored. Like, seriously bored. So bored that his ADHD ran out of things to take interest in. So he went onto the deck to train, since he was going crazy. He did roughly a hundred push-ups and sit-ups, which he kind of cheated by using water - but only a small amount, honest - and then practised his taekwondo stances and techniques. After a while, he got a notebook and detailed his future plans.
His 'plans' were basically ideas that he could use to better himself: from augmenting his limbs with magic to creating new weapons for his Ionioi Hetairoi spell. He even had ideas to implement something he watched from Bleach. The Sonido technique. What he hypothesised was that he could send a burst of kinetic energy from his gut to his feet. Then he could instantly move at almost supersonic speeds. This was different from his usual running. He would send only a burst rather than a stream of kinetic energy to the soles of his feet, moving at supersonic speeds. He hadn't practised with it because it was dangerous, and he didn't know the results of what could happen. Hell, he could probably end up with half his body in place if he were to move at such speeds unprepared. He also wanted to get the jet-like effect the Sonido technique had, because it was so cool.
Markus paused in his planning, taking time to think on a new development. Taking out his Chimera knife from his backpack, he made a rather big cut on his thumb, causing the wound to bleed. He ignored the pain and instead concentrated on the flowing blood. He held out his hand, focusing. A few seconds later, the blood responded to his control, forming into a mini-trident out of Markus' will, the size of a paperclip.
Markus nodded, satisfied with his progress. Ever since his talk with Ryūjin about using his powers, he thought about the one thing that had been on his mind: blood control. It made sense that it was within his grasp of power, since 80% of blood is composed of water. But he wasn't sure if he could manipulate it at first. But after a couple of practise tries, he was finally successful. The only thing was that he only had himself to test his abilities on. He couldn't test it on anyone else. Either because it sometimes didn't work, or he didn't get the time to do it. But he could imagine the power behind his ability. If he could control the blood of every living thing, he could be practically unstoppable. Okay, that was a bit of a stretch, and he probably couldn't control everyone, but still. He could imagine the power, the ease he would feel...
Markus didn't know it, but he gained a slight hungry light in his eyes, and a small, creepy smile on his face.
He was interrupted from his inner monologue as his gaze drifted towards several forests in the distance. His eyes perked up at the sound of something big moving through the thick Virginia swamp forests that they were passing by. Whatever it was, it was something really big, Markus could tell by the trees it was knocking over. He looked towards the shore, excitedly peering down his spyglass (this was the first interesting thing to have happened in ages!) and he eyed a hydra of all things.
Standing up to alert the crew, he shouted out to the group who were tailoring to other various tasks. "We got a hydra on the shore! Prepare yourselves!"
Markus heard Clarisse shout for crews to arm the cannons and for someone to get her a spyglass. She made no comment about how Markus was supposed to be on the observation deck, which was good.
Standing next to her, Markus offered his to the daughter of the war, who took it with a vicious smile of delight at the prospect of violence. But whatever she saw through the spyglass quickly caused it to fade into a dangerous scowl. "What are they doing here!?" She roared with anger, as she turned towards the captain. "I want those cannons ready yesterday!"
"Yes ma'am!" He saluted and shouted at his soldiers.
"What's going on?" Markus asked, confused as to what could enrage Clarisse so much. Well, more than usual.
"Jackson and Chase." Clarisse looked furious, the spyglass cracking in her grasp. "Get us closer!"
"Wait, what?" Markus asked, surprised. He knew that the two were going on the quest, but he didn't think that they would get into trouble so quickly. "We have to help them!"
Clarisse ignored him as the ironclad chugged closer to the riverbank, she was entirely focused on what was happening on the shore. "There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!"
"They're too close, m'lady!" The captain shouted as he pointed at their fellow demigods.
"Damn the heroes!" The girl said. "Full steam ahead!"
"No!" Markus yelled, grabbing her shoulder. "Are you insane?!"
"Aye, m'lady."
Clarisse shook off Markus' hands from her shoulder, gazing ahead.
"Fire at will, Captain!"
"Hit the dirt!" Markus heard Annabeth yell. At the same time, Markus quickly covered his ears. Even then, in the wake of the very loud BOOM, the child of Poseidon was still left with his head ringing from the loud and intense noise.
There was a flash of light, a column of smoke, and the hydra was promptly reduced to bloody chunks, showering Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson with nasty green slime.
"Gross!" screamed Annabeth.
"Steamship!" yelled Tyson excitedly.
Percy looked as though he was hacking out gunpowder from his lungs.
Markus shook his head. "Honestly, guys. Can you guys not get into trouble every time I see you?" At both teens' incredulous looks, he scoffed. "Oh, come on. You know it's true."
With being painted in monster guts, the demigods didn't seem like they were ready for criticism.
And that's a wrap!
So how'd you like it? Good? Bad? In between? Lemme know in the comment section bel- I mean the review section. Sorry, got confused between two sites.
So here we have several things: Markus verbally handing Tantalus' ass to him, Percy and Markus bonding after their little spat, Markus banishing Tantalus, and a display of Markus' plans and powers.
While he hasn't come far in blood control for Second Gear, he has sufficient control over it. Oh, and the Sonido idea came from DylanTheDemon, who gives awesome ideas. Thanks to you, man.
So we have started venturing into the Sea of Monsters. I plan to spice things up, maybe next chapter or so. Oh, and a little drama will commence at the end of the quest. I'll let you know what it's going to be about. This arc will be heavy on drama, which I plan to make sure of.
Thanks to all those who favourited, followed, read and reviewed the story. Luv you guys!
Thanks, Read and Review!