Brothers of the Sea
Percy and Thalia moved forward through the sea storm on the motorboat thanks to Percy's control over the ocean, which seemed to barely be keeping the boat afloat since the battle between gods was truly so violent that the sea itself was far too agitated.
Though the strange thing was that several times the boat seemed about to flip over, only for a wave to suddenly appear out of nowhere at the last moment and stabilize it. It even felt like the engine was moving faster, pulling them farther away from the battle.
Percy couldn't stop looking toward the sea, searching for something, but he couldn't find it.
It was obvious someone was helping him.
"Damn Norseman. I'll destroy that damned transport," the furious roar echoed from the sea, while several waterspouts merged together into an even larger one, resembling a gigantic serpent that could easily destroy an entire country.
But from Thor, only his laughter could be heard as his chariot flew at high speed through the storm clouds. Percy didn't even want to imagine how Grover and the others were handling that.
Then suddenly he heard something.
Something saying:
"Now is the time. Attack."
So Percy instantly turned around, looking toward the Princess Andromeda, which in the middle of all that chaos was still being held together by the storm god's power.
And now Percy could see what looked like fish tails swimming at incredible speed toward the Princess Andromeda, as if they had been waiting for the god protecting it to be distracted.
Percy watched figures barely rise from the water even in that horrifying storm. And the first thing that came to his mind when he saw their upper bodies emerge so easily from the sea was: mermaids. Or rather… tritons.
And for some reason every single one of them looked exactly the same, each with two fish tails, like they were some kind of clone army or something.
They surrounded the Princess Andromeda and seemed to pull out something that looked very familiar to Percy.
A glowing red sphere.
Or rather… hundreds of them.
Before retreating at high speed.
When the storm god noticed this, he looked downward and for a moment seemed to understand something.
And he shouted:
"NOOO!"
Right as a massive amount of fire devoured the ship in a violent explosion.
"TRITON!" the furious god roared while throwing one last glare toward Thor before plunging directly into the sea to chase the minor god who had just destroyed many of the Titans' plans by blowing up the Princess Andromeda.
Hearing the god's final shout, Percy finally understood who had been keeping his boat stable and had launched the final attack against the yacht.
The one Tyson said was a pretty cool brother.
And another son of Poseidon.
Messenger and god of the sea.
"Triton…"
Even though Percy had tried to cut ties with Poseidon, he still carried his blood. So Triton, just like Tyson, should technically be considered his half-brother.
Percy let out a slightly annoyed sigh for a moment, not knowing whether to feel grateful toward this supposed older brother or irritated, since honestly it felt more like they had helped themselves using him as a distraction.
…
Percy drove the boat toward what looked like a small abandoned wooden dock next to the nearby beach.
The moment they got close, Percy noticed the beaches were completely empty. And not just because it was the middle of winter and freezing cold, but because those absolutely insane sea storms from earlier had probably triggered dozens of alarms and now everyone was waiting for the end of the world.
"Ugh…"
"Ouch."
Instantly, Percy heard small pained cries, watching Grover, Malcolm, Clarisse, and Bianca appear, seemingly falling from the sky literally.
"See you around, brats. That was fun. If you run into another god that stupid next time, call me. But don't tell the old man," Thor said with an amused grin just from remembering the fight against the god of sea storms.
Thor didn't wait for an answer as his chariot turned into a flash of lightning, disappearing instantly.
Percy was seriously reconsidering whether asking Thor for help again was a good idea. Even if he was his master's friend, Percy had only asked for a distraction and it had almost turned into a war between gods from different pantheons.
"You guys okay?" Percy asked the ones now sprawled across the ground, all of them trying with everything they had not to throw up after the ride they'd just survived.
Clarisse was the first to lift her head, glaring at him furiously like she was about to beat the hell out of him. But it looked like if she opened her mouth, something a lady definitely shouldn't let out would come flying out instead, so she simply lowered her head again while holding her mouth shut.
Bianca wasn't doing any better. She didn't have as much training as the others. Actually, until recently she thought she was just a normal human girl who liked practicing with her bow for fun. So the fact she was still conscious already said a lot.
Grover was handling it a little better, mostly because he had already gone through insane adventures with Percy, though he still looked pale as death.
And Malcolm… it was probably better not to describe what he was currently doing to the ocean. But it could definitely be classified as pollution.
Thalia, who hadn't traveled with them but had still been on the boat in the middle of that storm, had plenty of complaints she wanted to say. But she seemed to hold them back as she looked toward the unconscious Alison.
"Why is that lunatic here?" Grover asked when he followed Thalia's gaze and recognized Alison.
"We kidnapped her. Luke wasn't on the yacht. Looks like he moved somewhere else. She seems to know quite a bit," Thalia said calmly.
The word kidnapped coming out of her mouth made everyone freeze for a moment.
"I think I need something to drink. Maybe a Diet Coke like Mr. D," Grover said for a moment while trying to calm his racing heart.
"Yeah, sure. Let's see if there's anything inside that huge cooler," Percy said calmly as he jumped back into the boat, followed by Grover. The two of them opened the massive cooler to check if there was anything inside.
The moment they opened it, they looked inside the cooler and both froze for a few seconds.
Instantly, both slammed the lid shut.
And the sound caught everyone else's attention, making them turn toward the two of them.
"That was…"
"No," Grover said instantly.
"Why did it look like…?" Percy started again.
"No. Definitely not. It can't be," Grover said quickly.
While the others walked over toward them, confused by the conversation.
"Then what is this?" Percy said as he opened the lid of the huge cooler again.
And when he did, a horned cow-like head poked out. A strange creature, some kind of mix between a fish and a bull, looked at them for a moment while slowly shifting its gaze between Percy and Grover.
While the others froze upon seeing the creature inside the cooler.
The Ophiotaurus.