¹𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑 ━ 𝗽. 𝗷𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀𝗼𝗻

015

⋆ ˚｡⋆ʚ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ɞ⋆ ˚｡⋆
─── ❛ fighting with a god ❜ ───

A COAST GUARD BOAT PICKED them up, but they were too busy to keep the four friends for long, or to wonder how four kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. there was a disaster to mop up. their radios were jammed with distress calls.

they dropped them off at the santa monica pier with towels around their shoulders and water bottles that said I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! and sped off to save more people.

their clothes were sopping wet, even percy's. when the coast guard boat had appeared, isabella silently prayed they wouldn't pick percy out of the water and find him perfectly dry, which might've raised some eyebrows. but to her surprise he was wet like them.

after reaching dry land, they stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise. isabella felt as if she'd just come back from the dead- which she had. she realized something, her clothes and the things that were on her backpack were wet too! now it's gonna be heavier.

"i don't believe it." annabeth said. "we went all that way—"

"it was a trick." percy said. "a strategy worthy of athena."

"hey. "she warned."

"you get it, don't you?"

she dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "yeah. i get it."

"well, i don't!" grover complained. "would somebody—"

"percy..." isabella said. "i'm sorry about your mother. i'm so sorry..."

she got no response. the girl guessed he was still very shocked and pretended to not hear her.

"the prophecy was right." percy said. "'you shall go west and face the god who has turned.' but it wasn't hades. hades didn't want war among the big three. someone else pulled off the theft. someone stole zeus's master bolt, and hades's helm, and framed me because i'm poseidon's kid. poseidon will get blamed by both sides. by sundown today, there will be a three-way war. and i'll have caused it."

grover shook his head, mystified. "but who would be that sneaky? who would want war that bad?"

percy stopped in my tracks, looking down the beach. "gee, let me think."

there he was, waiting for them, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. his motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.

fuck.

"hey, kid." ares said, seeming genuinely pleased to see percy. "you were supposed to die."

"you tricked me." the boy said. "you stole the helm and the master bolt."

ares grinned. "well, now, i didn't steal them personally. gods taking each other's symbols of power—that's a big no-no. but you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."

"who did you use? clarisse? she was there at the winter solstice."

the idea seemed to amuse him. "doesn't matter. the point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. see, you've got to die in the underworld. then old seaweed will be mad at hades for killing you. corpse breath will have zeus's master bolt, so zeus'll be mad at him. and Hades is still looking for this..."

from his pocket he took out a ski cap and placed it between the handlebars of his bike. immediately, the cap transformed into an elaborate bronze war helmet. no fucking way.