Percy expected to arrive at the infirmary to find it surrounded by people. He expected fire, shouting, all the usual things that came with chaos.
But the shop front that hid his mother's infirmary away was very ordinary looking. The only odd thing about it was that the shop itself was shut. His Mom never shut the shop. But there were no flames bursting out of the windows, no people screaming to get help. There were just a few disappointed children passing the shop by when they realised it was closed.
"Should we sneak in?" Night Owl asked, looking up at the windows above the shop that might be open.
"I hate sneaking" Tyson pouted, and Percy understood that. The guy was like a bull in a china shop even when he was trying to be gentle. No wonder Chiron didn't want him working the museum.
"Well, you can be our distraction. You burst in, we sneak" Night Owl told him, and Tyson nodded, clapping his hands.
"I like that plan!"
"Right, can we get on with it? My Mom is in there and I don't want her near Luke for any more time than she already has been" Percy growled. His Mom was not a piece in whatever game Luke was playing with Night Owl. Percy wouldn't let them hurt her.
Percy went first, jetting up to a window his Mom always left unlocked for him and pushed it open, squeezing inside silently. Night Owl followed, breezing into the room and looking around. Percy pointed to the landing, the Infirmary entrance across the hall. Night Owl nodded.
Tyson was good at breaking in. Percy heard a shattering of glass from below before he thundered up the stairs, bellowing curse words loudly. Night Owl grabbed Percy and flew up to the ceiling out of sight as Thalia appeared to fight him off.
"I'd make an inappropriate joke about this, but I'm not really in the mood" Percy muttered, and Night Owl fixed her orange eyes on him.
"And I'd punch you for it, but I don't feel like it either" She replied, and he smiled a little. Tyson had thrown Thalia down the stairs and Luke had emerged to see what was going on, attacking Tyson as he went to give Thalia another injury. Night Owl tossed Percy across the hall quickly, right through the other door into the infirmary, and she kept lookout.
"Mom" Percy breathed, spotting his mother tied up in a chair, surrounded by some sort of shield that glowed a faint blue.
"Percy" She replied weakly "Go"
"What did they do to you?" He asked angrily, reaching out to touch the light around her. She had a bleeding cut on her forehead, and Percy knew she'd fought with everything she had when Thalia and Luke came for her.
"Don't, honey just don't. This thing drains you. It'll kill me"
"I won't let them kill you Mom, no way. Just sit tight, I'm gonna get you out" Percy promised. She smiled.
"Get yourself out. And take Night Owl with you. Don't get hurt trying to save me"
"We need you Mom. If you think I'm just going to leave you behind then you have another thing coming" Percy told her sternly.
"Worth a shot" She muttered. He grinned. His Mom should know by now that when it came to her there was nothing she could say that would get him to stop. He may listen to everything she said usually, but this was one area that her advice would not be listened to. He knew not to touch the light, instead trying to find a weak spot or something in his Mom's supply closets that would get rid of it.
"Here, I got this" Night Owl called quietly from the door, swooping in and grabbing a few bottles from the closet.
"Thanks" Percy said.
"No problem seaweed brain, now keep a lookout for me" She replied, and Percy stared at her for a moment. Seaweed brain. Only one person had called him that, and that was only what, yesterday? Night Owl and Annabeth were good friends… or maybe they were closer than that.
As in, they were the same person closer.
"Typhoon we don't have time for you to zone out, go!" Night Owl called, and now Percy had thought about it she did sound a lot like Annabeth, she just didn't look like her because of all the feathers and the owl eyes and the near-constant murderous expression she wore. Percy nodded and headed for the door, and as an extra precaution he had a large volume of water fill the doorway completely and freeze over, creating a thick, crystal clear blockage between his Mom and the pair that took her.
Tyson had been holding up pretty good, but he was being worn out by Luke and Thalia's double-team tactics. Luke's golden mask had fallen off during the fight and he had a thick, ugly scar down his face, from his eye to his mouth.
"Courtesy of Night Owl" He growled, once he caught Percy staring at him. Percy summoned a huge wave of water and threw it down the stairs, knowing that Tyson could handle the force of the water. Thalia and Luke were completely submerged, and were deposited in the middle of the shop floor, soaked and heaving up water. Tyson ran up the stairs and grinned. His glasses were missing, no longer hiding the single eye on his head, but he didn't seem to mind.
"Good job brother!" He congratulated, before looking around "Where's the pretty birdy?"
"She's in there" Percy told him, pointing through the ice to where he could see Night Owl working on getting rid of the energy-sapping light around his Mom.
"Good, she's safe. What do we do with- where did they go?" Tyson asked, looking down the stairs with a frown, as they could no longer see Thalia or Luke.
"Sneaky mother-
And then came the fire. Percy thought he should be a seer, since he'd assumed there'd be fire before he even went inside, but he hadn't planned to actually be inside when the fire started. Tyson panicked, backing up against the ice as the flames licked at the bottom of the staircase. Luke and Thalia walked up the stairs calmly, Luke smiling evilly, Thalia looking uneasy.
"I always wondered what happened to a fish if you set it on fire" Luke said, and Percy raised an eyebrow.
"That's a little weird, dude" He said, trying to keep casual when really the fire made him want to jump out of the nearest window. He hated the dry heat of fire, the uncontrollable part of it that destroyed forests and choked people. Water could be just as bad, just as dangerous, but water couldn't bring a house down if someone left the oven running. It couldn't kill hundreds of people if the wind blew just slightly when it was real hot.
"Oh I don't think it is. I think we should find out what happens to you if we turn up the heat a little" He said.
"I'll get a wicked tan and you'll get a black eye, how's that?" Percy spat, but he too was backing up toward the ice block, and then across the hall when the fire went there first. Night Owl had freed his Mom, and both women were hitting their fists on the ice, yelling. He could hear muffled words, and Luke laughed.
"You know, for someone with no powers, its surprisingly easy to make magic you know. That room cannot be entered or exited unless they use the door. And what did you do, Typhoon? You blocked it" Luke crooned, patting the ice and pulling simpering faces at the two women on the other side. Percy could see his Mom using every bad word she knew and Night Owl threatening to kill Luke when she could reach him.
"Luke, you promised nobody would get hurt" Thalia said, putting a hand on his arm "We can get Night Owl and go"
"Yeah, because we'll let that happen" Percy told her, and she glared at him.
Night Owl was now kicking at the ice, making small fractures, and Percy raised his arms to shatter it himself.
"Don't you dare!" Luke snarled, putting a blade at this throat. Percy paused.
"You're insane, did you know that? You'll just get us all killed" He said, and Luke sneered.
"No, it'll just get you killed. I have a way out. I'll be taking Night Owl, and by tomorrow you'll have Kronos to deal with"
"Man, do you really have to go that far? I mean dude, I get that you're mad about your Mom; I'd be mad if that happened to mine too, but the Gods warned her that getting powers isn't easy. She knew the risks, and it went wrong. Are you gonna punish everyone for a mistake like that?" Percy asked him. Thalia looked to him silently, and he lifted his chin.
"You don't understand" He said haughtily, and removed his sword from Percy's throat "Get rid of the ice"
Percy kept an eye on the fire that was now dancing around the landing, rising up the walls and suddenly making a lot more noise than he knew flames could make. Like rushing wind, or blood in his ears. The air was too thin now, too, and Tyson had his huge hands over his mouth. Percy's Mom and Night Owl were banging on the ice a little more desperately now too, as the fire had creeped into their room.
"Get rid of the ice" Luke repeated dangerously, taking a step toward Percy. Thalia had a piece of cloth tied around her mouth and nose and she pulled Luke back.
"Call off this crazy plan of yours" Percy replied.
"No! Get rid of the ice!"
"Not if you don't-
"GET RID OF THE ICE, PERCY JACKSON!"
Luke's eyes flashed gold, the voice that came from his mouth wasn't in fact his, but a deeper, more powerful voice that made Percy feel like someone was running blades across his spine. Percy took a step back, and Thalia shook Luke by his shoulders.
"Don't you get it, Jackson? If he doesn't wake Kronos up- Kronos will take him instead. Take his body instead of his Titan one. Get rid of the ice" She ordered. Night Owl had stopped in her attempt to break the ice, holding up Percy's Mom, who'd collapsed from the smoke, staring at Luke in shock. Her eyes met Percy's, and she pointed down. She mouthed 'water'.
Percy had always had a sixth sense for water. Usually he could just summon it from thin air, but he always knew where water was. He knew how many miles he was from the sea at any given moment, he knew where all the pipes carrying water were in city like veins beneath the skin; and he knew that below the floors of his mother's infirmary, there was a massive water main just waiting to be tapped into. He thrust his arm out and the ice shattered, and Luke and Thalia believed for a second that he was allowing them to take Night Owl and go; until they heard the rumbling.
"What- Jackson, what are you doing?" Luke demanded, clinging to Thalia as the rumbling only increased. Percy was breathing deeply, not caring that the air was thick with smoke and the fire was at his feet. He didn't care about the warning that his father gave him years ago about messing with tonnes of water.
"Seaweed brain" Night Owl breathed, and Percy gave her a warning look before he let his power out. It was sort of like an explosion he guessed; starting with him and just sort of rippling outward. The water suddenly surrounded everything, dousing the fire and rising, blasting out of every crevice in the building until the pressure was too much and it punched its way out instead. Percy could feel every drop of water in the city; every water tower, every puddle left over from the rain, every small pond or lake or bathtub full of it. He knew he was powerful; he knew his dad had given him gifts that made others weary of him. But he only truly realised it when he could make buildings explode just from raising his arms a few inches.
When Percy's energy faded he was sure he was flying- or falling, but it was hard to tell since the water he'd been lifting was also falling so he didn't quite know where he was.
"Don't worry Seaweed Brain, I gotcha" A familiar voice said, and Percy grinned.
"That was awesome" He said.
"Sure was, except you kinda broke every water tower and bathtub in the city"
"Pft, worth it"
Night Owl chuckled, and continued flying.
"Where's my Mom?" He asked.
"Tyson has her. We're taking her to Praetor, since she has her own little supply of ambrosia"
That was true; Percy was sure Praetor had her own league of heroes, but he never asked since she'd likely stab him for questioning her. Still, she seemed like the type to build her own little army in case someone went rogue or something. Percy just relaxed as Night Owl flew him across the city, wondering if he went rogue, an army would be able to keep him at bay.
hello! so its a Thursday afternoon, I'm roasting in the summer heat (I don't know where it came from) but I am also feeling productive so here's a chapter! Enjoy, leave a review, and thank you for reading, you all make me so happy!