Voltron (Percy Jackson edition)

Percy flies a blue lion across the galaxy

"You know, by 'hike' I didn't think you meant we'd be scaling up cliffs," Percy huffed once they finally reached a flat area that all five of them could stand on. Percy wouldn't consider himself the most athletic person, especially not compared to Grover, who looked about ready to faint on top of Jason, but this 'hike' was making him think of changing his definition of 'athletic.'

"Did you not bring your climbing shoes Percy?" Annabeth's tone was dry, though her words were most definitely not. Percy was a bit frustrated with how unbothered she looked. The wind simply swept her mound of curls out of her face, the harsh sun not bothering her in the slightest.

Percy winced when he looked over to where Jason and Nico seemed to be having a silent conversation. At least Percy could say he was tanned enough to where he wouldn't get as sunburnt as Nico's flushed face currently was.

"This is it," Nico murmured, though his voice was almost lost with the turbulent wind, "The cave system. Take your pick at which one to go into first."

"Maybe we should split up," Percy offered, "we'd get more ground covered that way."

"I vote no," Grover automatically refuted.

"Oh c'mon dude, Jason said there were no aliens on Earth-"

"Splitting up wouldn't be a good idea, considering we don't even really know what we're looking for," Annabeth concluded, Jason nodding in agreement beside her. Percy decided he just wouldn't propose another plan again when those two were around.

"We'll just have to go with our gut," Nico decided.

Gut, huh?

Percy wasn't a brainiac like Annabeth and Grover, but his gut was something he could definitely rely on. (Besides that time when his gut told him to flip a lever, tossing his whole elementary school class into a shark tank. Or the time where he shot a cannon and it-) Point was, his gut was mostly right.

Percy closed his eyes and thought of home. The rundown little lake house on the beach he and his mom visited when they wracked up enough money for a vacation. His mom. He missed her, it had been a while since he had seen her, especially since she was really his only blood related family he knew of. He hoped that Paul guy was treating her well...

Then he smelled it, the faint scent of salt, like an ocean breeze. Panicked, Percy's eyes shot open to see if he had somehow been magically transported to the beach, but he was met with the same outcropping. Though, the smell only got stronger, and something was churning in his stomach, tugging him forward like an invisible string.
"That way," Percy pointed towards one of the larger caverns.

"Are you sure about that?" Grover asked, practically biting his nails down to their cuticles. Percy would need to get him some band aids later.

"No, not really."

Jason made a noncommittal noise from somewhere behind him, "good enough for me, lets go."

What Percy first noticed about the cavern was just how large it was. All five of them could walk side by side with space in between them. Only about five steps in, the second thing he noticed was the carvings Nico had failed at taking pictures of.

"So these are the carvings," Annabeth said in wonder, more to herself than anyone else. She tended to do that a lot, and Percy figured that she should have gone to school for architecture instead of being some crewmate to a pilot like him. Why had she chosen to go this route anyways? It had to be something...

Percy put that thought aside for later. He made his way to the nearest carving to observe it, and for some reason, the salty breeze persisted even in the windless cave.