PERCY CLIMBED OUT ON…Zhang, you should know!"
Frank snorted in amusement and Percy burst out laughing as he remembered the conversation which had followed.
"That had to be one of the most chaotic conversations ever." He wheezed.
"I loved it." Leo grinned and Frank rolled his eyes playfully at both of them.
"Now I want to know what happened." Clarisse smirked at her brother, seeing as he seemed to be a part of this 'conversation'. Frank pouted at her and she snickered.
Frank flinched. "I should?"… "A son of Ares stood here!"
"How dare you stand where he stood!" Chris shouted in a perfect imitation of Daniel Radcliffe, making everybody roar with laughter and Hermes' eyes shined with pride. Clarisse nodded approvingly at her boyfriend.
"Honestly, sons of Ares stood in a lot of places. There are so many of them its kind of hard to keep track of who stood where." Clarisse smirked at Ares who smirked and ruffled her hair playfully.
"So funny." He said to her and Clarisse snickered and Chris gave her a high five.
"No but seriously, she ain't wrong brother." Hermes grinned at Ares who flipped him off playfully.
"You're one to talk anyways." He said.
"See I'm not denying that." The reply came with a smirk.
Hedge cried indignantly…American Civil War
"He's Canadian." Ares chuckled.
"Thank you!" Frank said, throwing his hands up in exasperation, making the rest of the seven snicker.
"I'm Canadian, actually."
"I think you broke Coach's heart." Piper told Frank who looked grumpy at that.
"He broke mine first." He answered and crossed his arms as he tried to hold back his laugh but failed and burst out laughing along with the others.
"Whatever! General Sherman…there was a demigod!"
"That's…an interpretation." Apollo blinked slowly.
"I think he would get along with pirates." Triton said amusedly.
"Pirates like Sciron, hell nah. But pirates like the ones from Black Sails? Hell yeah." Percy said with a chuckle.
"You know Sciron?" Poseidon's eyes widened and at the same time Triton asked "You've watched Black Sails?" Triton and Poseidon looked at each other and then at Percy.
"Yes, I've watched Black sails." Percy said to Triton with a smile. "I cannot answer your question, dad." He said apologetically to Poseidon who blinked and rubbed his temples.
Frank inched away from…the site of one such battle.
"Yeah, Greeks and Romans really did wreck hell sometimes, huh?" Dakota shook his head with a slight grimace.
"Sometimes?" Grover said dryly. Dakota gave him a sheepish look.
"Trying to understate it." He said and Grover chuckled.
"Can't blame you." He said.
The entire city below them…for instance, wouldn't hesitate.
Instead of looking offended, Clarisse looked she was actually thinking of the answer.
"Honestly, I think it would depend. If I saw that the people under my command were dying unnecessarily and if there was no other efficient way out, I'd have to do something drastic." She said once she thought about it. "You're telling me that if you saw the people you fought with die in a way that you weren't able to prevent or reduce, then you would lose the war knowing that you could have done something you regretted but prevent your side from getting decimated? And you're a Greek demigod and you know that the other side is Roman and if they win, then it might just be catastrophic? Do you not think that the stakes might be too high to choose a good night's sleep, thinking that you did the peaceful thing over such consequences?" Clarisse asked Percy.
Everybody looked interested at that interpretation and intrigued by what Percy would have to say. Ares was looking exceptionally proud of Clarisse for understanding that she understood the stakes that came with war and not just brutality of it. Athena looked at Percy, trying to figure out what the he would say. She half expected him to say that there were alternative ways but the other half of her thought about what he had said to Jason about taking risks.
Now the son of Poseidon looked deep in thought. A while back, he'd have said that he'd have tried to figure out an alternative way but if the reading had changed the gods, it'd changed him as well as had the news of the upcoming war and as all the memories of the wars were refreshed with the reading. And as he read more and as he thought about the dream that he had had, he understood more and more that sometimes you couldn't try to be better than your opponent. He knew risks had to be taken as did drastic measures in the scenario of war as well trying to protect your loved ones or your people.
"I think if there was no other option that could be as effectively applied in short time and would lead to more deaths, then I would have given such an order. You're right when you say that I might have just regretted it my whole life that that destruction was on me but at least I wouldn't have the blood of my own soldiers on my hands over the thought that I wanted to do the peaceful thing. Sometimes…" Percy sighed as he finally spoke "-Sometimes, the peace or easy way out isn't the way to go about things because those have worse consequences than what you're about to do. Yes, I'd regret the loss of life on the other side and civilian losses if any were caught in the fire my whole damn life and every single night but as a commander, I think my focus should have been on saving my people otherwise I shouldn't even be a commander. It's a war…and there's no war without casualties." Percy said as he took a deep breath. Clarisse, Ares and Frank gave him small smiles, knowing just how difficult it was once somebody understood that. The other demigods sighed in understanding and nodded in agreement though like Percy, it wasn't a thought they were fond of.
Poseidon squeezed Percy's shoulder reassuringly. He understood that processing that for Percy wasn't going to be easy. He knew Percy never willingly liked hurting people but he knew that being a leader, Percy was going to have to make those choices when it was time to lead the demigods again and he knew that Percy knew that. Poseidon knew how much it weighed on one's shoulders and despite wanting to protect Percy from that, he knew he couldn't and the thought made him angry but he knew that he couldn't do anything about that either.
Athena looked at the son of Poseidon with narrowed eyes. For some reason the demigod couldn't cease to surprise her. She had not expected him to say what he did and while some part of her did suspect that he would agree to an extent, she had not expected him to agree completely. Perhaps, he understood strategy more than she wanted to let on.
"I know its hard to accept that." Ares said finally and everybody turned to look at him. The god of war didn't justify his domain very frequently and so when he did, people tended to listen. "War…it isn't just about stabbing or shooting your enemies, its about knowing when something has to be done. While the fighting is obviously necessary, so are the choices and those choices can really grate on you at one point but you know that you had no choice but to make that decision. People think that war is just about bloodshed but its not. Every commander fights their own internal war about the choices that they dread that they're going to have to make. I can imagine how hard it would have been for my son to stand there and give that order." Ares sighed as explained. Everybody stared at him in curiosity and some in surprise. "You see..." he swallowed "People think that my children like war but that's not true. They understand what comes with it." He said, looking at every single person in the room. Needless to say, he was surprised when he saw some of the demigods look at him in awe.
"And there's a difference there, isn't it?" Chris said quietly. Ares looked at his most probably son-in-law and nodded.
"Yes."
There was silence for a while as everybody processed that and finally Annabeth broke it with a light chuckle. Ares looked at them and hid a smile at the thought that maybe…just maybe, somebody would understand.
"Honestly, I think now if any of us were given a choice like that, we'd take the toll it had on us. Heck, its not like we're above blowing things up." She joked and the demigods chuckled. "You guys remember when Clarisse tried to blow up the entrance to the Labyrinth with Dynamite and Travis offered to give her a supply of Dynamite and all the explosives later on?" she laughed and the elder Greek demigods burst out laughing and even Ares chuckled.
"Well, I could give more than Dynamite." Travis grinned, increasing the laughter.
Dionysus was also smiling and decided to continue once everybody calmed down.
But he couldn't imagine Frank…start in the middle."
"That's smart." Triton nodded. "Gives you a better idea and accessibility." He said.
Catching a ride there was…Cloves. Rose Petals. Tasty!
That got a few raised eyebrows and Grover felt that he should let them know that it was the cloves and rose petals that were tasty.
"He wasn't…uh...talking about the person more like what the scent was made of." He clarified, making the demigods snicker and the gods looked amused.
They piled into Esther's big black…but he didn't have any better ideas.
"Honestly though, its not surprising. If an Ancient sea god wanted to disguise himself as a mortal, where else do you think he'd be…especially in Atlanta?" Poseidon mused as he rubbed his chin. A few people snorted in amusement as well at the sea god's words.
"That makes way too much sense, uncle." Hermes chuckled making Poseidon grin.
"I mean I get the inspiration." He said. Everybody snickered.
"Yes," Percy said…him sugar to son.
"It is so weird running into such nice mortals." Thalia shook her head.
"That's partially the reason why I thought she was a monster." Percy sighed.
"Yeah, I mean most of them are just monsters and you're not going to find mortals who're willing to help kids by taking their time out." Will said and let out a deep breath at the thought.
"That's…not nice." Ares frowned.
"Yeah, well that's just how it works most of the time but you know, occasionally you do run into people who are generous and kind…its just that there are not many in this world and with the way coincidences work on quests, its highly unlikely you're going to find any." Chris explained.
"That's depressing." Demeter said.
"Yeah maybe a bit of cereal could fix them." Hades joked. Nico burst out laughing as did a few others. Demeter smirked at her younger brother.
"Not a bit. A lot." She corrected.
"Yes well but we don't want to torture them while they're alive, do we? Lets leave some of that when they end up in punishment. You have no idea how many souls cry every day because of the cereal you leave me." Hades said innocently.
"You torture people with my cereal?" Demeter shrieked, making Hades cackle and Persephone kept a hand on his arm as she smiled in amusement.
"That's enough, both of you. Lets not go into the benefits of cereal." She said and everybody chuckled.
"Is it actually a torture method?" Travis whispered to Hades who smirked at him.
"Absolutely." The god of the dead answered. "How can it not be?"
As she drove away…They sound dangerous!"
"You will absolutely not hurt whale sharks-" Triton said indignantly.
"Yeah, don't worry. I don't think it came to that." Percy assured him, making Triton huff and cross his arms.
It hadn't occurred to Percy…Her name tag read KATE
"Yeahh, definitely not good news." Hermes stated.
"I think it's a little more concerning that she knew they were coming. Was she the one that the giants were talking about in your dream?" Hephaestus asked Percy who grimaced and shook his head.
"Trust me, I wish she was the one they were talking about." He answered. Poseidon swallowed at his son's reply. Wow, he was really not looking forward to hearing about whomever the giants were talking about.
"Did it have something to do with the Mark?" Apollo asked. Annabeth winced and nodded. Apollo pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling nauseous as a thought about who it could be began forming in his head but he didn't say anything out loud because he couldn't give spoilers and nor did he want to freak out the others.
"You have your payment…"Probably," Frank said
"And you're still going?" Persephone raised an eyebrow at Frank and Percy who shrugged.
"We needed information and she could give it to us. Seemed like a fair risk to take because otherwise we'd quite literally be stuck without knowing what to do next? And there aren't many monsters in Atlanta that could have told us about what the giants were upto." Percy explained.
"She's not mortal… "Oh, those are the yellow ones"
"Gee, really?" Lee snorted
"Firstly, she's trapping fish and she can't even be bothered to know which ones. Honestly, I really hope this doesn't get worse or I'm going to end up hurting her." Triton clenched his jaw. Percy grimaced, knowing that it was going to get worse.
"Well, I'll help?" he said.
"Ah, so it does get worse."
They passed the gift shop…It's like a gag gift."
"Yeah, those were fun to mess around with." Leo laughed. The rest of the seven chuckled as they remembered the 'Frank Incident'.
"Come along, boys…And I'm not even in the water.
Thalia and Nico gave Percy small sympathetic smiles. Thalia knew what it was like to be afraid of heights and after Bianca and his mom, for a while, Nico knew what it was like to be scared of death.
Poseidon squeezed Percy's shoulder reassuringly. He himself knew a phase when he felt the same fear as Percy but at one point he realized that it wasn't really about water or drowning and he had a feeling that the same thing was happening with Percy.
The real threat was Kate…"That's kind of amazing."
"Yeah, the only reason that they're the only whale sharks in captivity is because they're not supposed to be in captivity." Amphitrite scowled.
"So its not Amazhang then, zhang." Leo told Frank with a raised eyebrow and the son of Mars rolled his eyes playfully at the son of Hephaestus.
"Yes, and these are small…DEATH IN THE DEEP SEAS!
Triton groaned in annoyance and even Poseidon and Amphitrite were scowling and nor were Tyson and Percy looking too happy.
"Do they have any idea how much the ecosystem gets disturbed by this? This is supposed to be natural and these absolute idiots are showcasing it for amusement. If people want to see this so much they should go scuba diving or something." Triton said in frustration, throwing his hands up in annoyance.
"Don't worry. I'll deal with this…aquarium." Poseidon said with distaste.
Sponsored by Monster Donut…much screaming, and a cannon.
"Yeah, it was beautiful." Clarisse grinned and Chris chuckled fondly.
"Yes indeed. So beautiful and precious to see a monster spitting poison and having no way to escape. I have never seen anything more gorgeous." Annabeth said dryly.
In one aquarium…Their minds seemed addled.
The sea gang was all but seething by now and nobody wanted to even try and calm them down because they looked downright terrifying.
"Are they drugged?" Poseidon asked quietly, his voice like the calm before a storm.
"I think they put it in the water to…tame them." Percy gritted his teeth and Poseidon clenched his fists.
"That's horrible." Tyson said sadly.
"This isn't right…Their eyes were half closed.
Everybody froze and they slowly turned their heads towards the king and queen of the seas and it was at that moment when they saw the form of the two that gave the sea its violent reputation at times.
"Poseidon." Amphitrite said, looking at her husband, anger burning in her eyes towards Keto and Phorcys.
"We'll deal with them, my love. You have my word." Poseidon said, his voice ringing with promise as he met his wife's gaze.
"I think you're going to have beat me to it." Triton gritted out.
"I'll help." Percy said to Triton with flickering anger in his eyes as he tried to keep it under control. Triton smirked evilly at him and nodded.
"This is going to be fun." Triton said, cracking his neck and knuckles. Everybody else swallowed as they looked at the sea gang. Even Tyson was looking absolutely furious and honestly, if Tyson and Percy were angry, they really didn't want to know what in Tartarus was going to happen.
Percy felt so angry…"How can you keep them here?"
At this point, Poseidon couldn't tell whether it was his own anger that he was feeling or Percy's because right now, he'd do with all the anger he could get. Now he knew why everybody thought it was dangerous whenever him and Percy were angry.
"I think maybe they got captured during the first titan war? Could that be a possibility?" Annabeth asked, being one of those who was absolutely unfazed by the sea gang's anger, knowing that no matter what it wasn't going to be directed at the wrong people. None of elder Greek demigods were fazed by Percy's anger either for the exact same reason.
"That's most probably it. The ancient gods and monsters started rising up during that time itself and they were most likely captured then." Poseidon admitted.
"I know." Kate sighed…no luck, I'm afraid.
"Treating my sisters like goddamned pets." Amphitrite growled. Poseidon kept a hand on her shoulder and gave a slight nod to his queen, the silent promise that the necessary action would be taken.
I think you'll like this…"They're dangerous!"
"Yeah, well, they don't seem bothered." Aphrodite pointed out. "They've got giant serpents in captivity and you're worried about telkhines?" she said to Percy who shrugged.
"Serpents can't re-forge Kronos's scythe and make it sharper than before." He answered.
"Which reminds me, we should probably keep a closer eye at as well…just in case….and a couple more of my volcanic workshops for that matter." Hephaestus said suddenly
"I don't think that's going to make much of a difference. The scythe is going to be made either way." Ares said grimly.
Kate rolled her eyes…"Is that legal?"
"Not a single thing happening here is legal…not my mortal standards or Olympian standards and definitely not by Atlantis laws." Zeus chuckled. Frank turned red.
"I honestly don't why that was what I asked." He admitted sheepishly.
"That's fine. Drugs are the one thing that most demigods or mortals associate with the word 'illegal'…of course, followed by homicide, murder and all." Apollo said with a small smile.
Kate appeared not to have heard…he felt sorry for them.
"It really is horrible." Rachel shook her head.
"Its pretty cruel. Robbing them of the one thing they love doing. One thing that makes them seem less monstrous." Michael sighed.
"Okay. That just made this whole thing much more depressing." Dakota raised an eyebrow at the son of Apollo who shrugged.
"And these sea monsters…Kate knew about him
"Dude, everybody knows you're the son of Poseidon. Uncle P isn't exactly trying to hide that." Hermes chuckled at Percy who grinned sheepishly.
"Yeah but something still seemed off." He mumbled and Hermes chuckled again.
"You're right."
He didn't like the way…the side read: PORKY'S FOLLIES.
Everybody snorted with laughter.
"This reminds me of Procrustes calling himself Crusty." Grover snickered.
"It matched too." Annabeth laughed.
A headset microphone was clamped…The sea demons paid him no attention.
"Yeah, how are they going to if you keep them drugged?" Reyna drawled.
"He was smart that way." Percy told her.
Coach Hedge leaned toward…I told them my name was Keto."
"Like the diet?" Katie said amusedly.
"Damn it. Should've used that." Percy said with regret. Katie winked at him.
"Next time, brother." She said.
They misspelled it as Kate…"He's shy," Keto said defensively
"He's drugged, you smart little-" Nico started exasperatedly and gave up all hope as he pinched his nose in disappointment and shook his head. Everybody looked just as done as he did at that point.
"She literally said that they kept them sedated?" Connor raised his eyebrows.
Besides, each of his tentacles…than your upstart father, by the way
"Yeah, you see the thing is…we eventually stop caring about the whole age thing." Poseidon drawled.
I'm god of the hidden depths…Olympians said Atlantis," Keto explained
"Yeahh no." Triton said
"Not happening." Poseidon agreed.
"Their idea of a joke…he was going to be sick.
Ares felt slight nausea creep up on him through the curse but he shook it off.
Coach Hedge whistled…and kept playing Go Fish.
Amphitrite was glad that the Nereids didn't pick up those swords and yet she looked angry beyond belief that they were trapped in that cage.
"Curse it!" Phorcys stomped…starting to get a headache.
Poseidon felt Percy's headache shoot up in his skull as well and with the anger running through his head, it felt worse than it would have under normal circumstances. 'If only aspirin worked on gods' he thought.
He wasn't sure if it…Two was pushing it.
Everybody chuckled fondly.
The wine .
"Its wine dude." Nico corrected and Dionysus blinked at the son of Hades and raised his eyebrows and Nico grinned. Dionysus then very dramatically flipped him off and Nico burst out laughing, remembering that even Dionysus was considered young and the god was basically a millennial or a Gen Z in mental years.
"I feel wounded." Nico said with a dramatic hand to his chest.
"Good."
He looked at Phorcys…Everybody talks about you."
"Yeah, flattery always works. Keep going." Demeter encouraged.
"Compliment his party planning." Dionysus said as if it physically hurt him to say that even if he didn't believe it.
Phorcys tilted his head so…cranberry juice or something?"
Everybody sniggered and Dionysus looked like he wanted to burst out laughing.
"Who do you think created cranberry juice, Peter?" he said. Percy looked surprised.
"You invented wine and cranberry juice?" he said.
"Its better. Younger kids can't really drink wine, you know? Its considered illegal." Dionysus said, drawling the last bit.
"That…makes sense." Percy said and his expression looked like somebody had just told him that his life had been a lie.
The sea god snorted…"Good advice," Percy agreed.
"Yeah, they can now traumatize anybody with those outfits of theirs." Aphrodite sniffled in disdain.
"And the parties." Dionysus agreed. "Its painful." He sighed.
"And now the twins are—"…"Yes, another stupid stunt,"
Ares stiffened and clenched his fists so tight that he was worried he'd draw blood but at the same time he couldn't care less and the Ares kids looked like they were about ready to spit fire. Hermes, Apollo, Artemis and Dionysus were also baring their teeth and Dionysus covered the purple fire in his eyes with the book.
"Did he just say stunt?" Artemis asked slowly, danger coloring her voice. Yeah, she and Ares had their fair share of petty fights but at the end of the day, he was still her brother and maybe they'd all forgotten that for a while but they'd learned to not let that go by now.
"They thought it was fun." Hermes growled out. Ares looked taken aback by the anger of his behalf. He'd all but given up hope on ever reconciling with his siblings again.
"Bloody assholes. That's what they are. Trapping somebody in a goddamn jar for entertainment." Hephaestus shook his head in disgust. Yeah, he and Ares didn't get along but he was still his brother despite every insult they'd thrown at each other and nobody got to suffocate him in a jar.
"Didn't it still take you ages to get him out though?" Clarisse drawled coldly. All the other gods then refused to meet her piercing gaze. Ares squeezed his daughter's shoulder reassuringly but Clarisse did not back down and none of the demigods stopped her. Maybe they hadn't liked Ares before but they'd never liked the way that it had taken so long to rescue him from the jar.
"And we still regret that." Apollo sighed finally. As nobody spoke after that, Dionysus thought it best to continue reading.
How can you show off…creatures was starting to affect him.
Poseidon grimaced as he rubbed his head. The lethargy of the sea creatures affecting Percy was now affecting him. That combined with Percy's headache and his own anger did not help matters. It felt like a really really bad hangover.
"You said this—this doomsday…searching for the Mark of Athena."
"Yeah, both in this case." Nico raised an eyebrow. "They messed up in providing a solution to two problems for them." He chuckled.
"Honestly, the rest of the guys didn't even know about the Mark of Athena…I was the only one after it so technically the rest of them came to rescue you and defeat the giants." Annabeth reminded Nico.
Phorcys elbowed Frank…really dumb because, uh…"
"Real smooth." Travis chuckled "You do need lessons in lying." He said.
"Fun." Frank answered.
"Its clearly not as easy as you think and nor is it as useless as you're making it out to be. You really could have used it here. Lying isn't just about betraying people or something. Sometimes you gotta bullshit your way out with gods and monsters and others who want to kill you." Connor frowned at Frank who sighed and nodded.
"Sorry." He apologized and the Hermes gang nodded. Hermes was glad that his kids understood that lying wasn't just for stealing or betraying but sometimes it could be really useful and life-saving. Not many people understood that and not many wanted to. They wanted to leave it at the fact that it was not an honorable thing to do but the thing was that sometimes when it was a life or death situation with people who wanted to kill you, honor wasn't what you were caring about the most at that moment.
Phorcys narrowed his eyes…sign that read CLUE!
"Bruh. Seriously? You got to stop giving yourself away so vividly." Travis shook his head. Now he looked worried rather than amused. If this was going to continue, then these guys could find themselves in some pretty deep shit.
"You have a bounty on your head. I'm sure Percy or any other demigod would have understood that or you could have discussed it back at the ship. This way you're going to give yourself away if you haven't already. Its really not strategic or smart at the moment." Reyna said with a small frown. Frank turned red and nodded.
"Yeah, it was a bad move. Should've been a bit more discreet." He agreed.
"But enough boring educational…"Come on."
"Chapter's done." Dionysus said with relief.
"I'll read." Grover volunteered.