Thunderstruck

III

The moment the shock wore off, the hunters all leveled their bows at Percy.

Percy got Nico and Bianca behind his back, while Thalia jumped in front of Percy, Ægis between her and the silver arrows.

"Whoa! What are you doing?" Percy asked, holding his hands up in surrender.

"You sabotaged our rescue operation, boy! If you didn't cut through our ropes, we would have saved our mistress!" The girl in the circlet accused, her bow trained on his face.

"That's ridiculous! He tried to help! If it wasn't for him, you all would have been carried away without his help! As for the cutting, that one guy obviously fucked with the water." Thalia retorted, not letting the woman with the circlet get a clear shot at her boyfriend.

Bianca piped up behind Percy. "She's right, he's innocent."

All eyes turned to the young woman in the green hat.

"W-Well, I've always had a strong sense of justice, and I can always tell when someone is guilty. He's not." She sheepishly explained.

Normally, such a claim would be brushed off with an eye roll, but demigods were… weird. It was completely plausible that she could do as she claimed.

As the hunters lowered their bows, Percy tried to break the tension. "Let's start over, I'm-"

"We know who you are, son of Poseidon. Everyone knows who you are now." One of the hunters jeered.

The apparent leader glared at the other hunter but then dropped it to turn back to look at Percy. "As Phoebe says, we are well aware of who you are. We should go back to your camp and consult the Oracle of Delphi. What is your mode of transportation?"

Percy frowned and wondered how they could travel to Camp. Before he could say that the car was taken with Annabeth, one of the hunters piped up.

"He's a son of Poseidon, so I assume he has some kind of naval transportation, is that true?"

Percy's face reddened a little, but he bluffed through it. "Of course, yeah, that makes sense."

They walked towards the nearest pier, with Percy racking his brain the whole while. He prayed to his father for some kind of aid, considered calling for a ride from some sea creature, maybe they could steal a boat? That would be all he needed.

He was broken from his thoughts when Thalia came to stand with him, tucked under his arm again. "So. You have no plan, do you?" She asked, poking him in the ribs.

"I'm improvising."

Thalia chuckled and rolled her eyes before glancing at the two uninitiated demigods. "So… any guesses?"

Percy looked at her blankly. "Guesses about what?"

Thalia shook her head. "Their parent, Kelp Head. I was thinking possibly Apollo after that lie detection thing she did, but they don't look like any Apollo camper I've ever seen."

"Hm. Maybe Nemesis?"

"No, that's revenge, this was something about guilty. What about Themis, goddess of Justice?" Thalia hypothesized. Percy nodded, thinking that was smart until he remembered what Grover had said about them being strong.

"Nah, she's a minor goddess. Grover seemed to think their parent was at least an Olympian." Percy pointed out. He looked at the two and really thought about it. "Thals, what god do we know of who's strong, loyal enough to watch after his kids in some way, has their features, and an obsession with judgment?"

Thalia didn't take long to pick up what he was putting down. "No, that'd be crazy. The big three don't have kids, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, Daughter of Zeus, I completely forgot about that. Us children of Poseidon can be so silly." He said with exaggerated sincerity.