The Poseidon Girls

Chapter 13 ~ Discussions (CORAL)

"Cyclops!" Jason yelled as he jerked awake.
"Whoa, sleepyhead." Piper sat behind the son of Zeus, holding his waist to keep him balanced. We flew peacefully through the winter sky as if we'd never met Cyclopes in Detroit.
"D-Detroit," Jason stammered. Didn't we crash land? I thought -"
"It's okay," Leo assured his friend. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?"
"How did you - the Cyclops -"
"Leo ripped them apart," Cass explained. "He was amazing. He can summon fire -"
"It was nothing." Leo retorted. Piper laughed.
"Shut up, Valdez. I'm going to tell him. Get over it." And tell him she did - how Leo single-handedly defeated the Cyclopes, how Cass controlled the fire, how Leo and Piper freed Jason, finding out about Katherine, then noticing the Cyclopes beginning to reform, the meeting with Hades, how Leo had repaired Festus's wiring and gotten us back into the air just as we'd started hearing the Cyclopes roaring for vengeance inside the factory. What Piper missed out, however, was Leo's private talk with Cass. I knew something good had come out of it - Cass had been really happy ever since she scrambled on to Festus, I just wasn't sure what happened.
"So, Cass, what happened with you and Leo?" I asked her.
"Shut up, Watson." She told me. But her voice sounded light, and happy, as if her greatest dream had come true. "What's going on with you and Connor?"
"Connor?" I asked, confused. There was no way she would know about my crush on a boy I barely knew.
"Oh, please, Rellie, it's obvious you like him!"
"Shut up, Salmon." I copied her favourite retort she used when I said something embarrassing.
"There's a talking salmon?" Katherine asked.
"Um, kind of?"
"Kind of?"
"She was talking to me. Technically, yes, there is a talking salmon, but not the kind you were thinking of."
"Oh, right. So your name is Cass Salmon?"
"Yep. And, as you probably heard from Talking Salmon here, my surname is Watson - like John Watson, Sherlock's assistant."
"Coral," Piper began. "Can I please ask, why the Hades did Cass call you Rellie?"
"Oh, um, it's just a nickname that I had when I was little, and, as you heard, it stuck. But I only let certain people call me that, sorry."
"Oh, ok, so basically just Cass, and your mum, then?"
"What about Connor?"
"I said shut up, Salmon. And yeah, just Cass and my mum. Well, and my dad, now that I know he's still alive."
"Cass, what's it with you and Connor? Do you like him or something?" Jason asked.
"No, I don't like Connor. But I know someone who does."
"Cass here likes someone else." Piper said mysteriously.
"What? When did I say that?"
"I'm a daughter of Aphrodite, Cass, I know when people like someone. He likes you as well, by the way, Cass."
"Lucky," Katherine remarked. "I liked a guy once in year 7, but he had a girlfriend (Sound familiar? dreamsinmypockets ) . It sucked."
"Anyway, so, if there was someone speaking Latin wearing a purple shirt, does that mean I'm not alone?" Jason wondered. "There must be others like me."
"Jason, you were never alone." Piper assured him. "You've got us."
"I - I know... but something Hera said. I was having a dream..." Jason explained what Hera told him in his dream.
"An exchange?" Piper asked. "What does that mean?" Jason shook his head.
"But Hera's gamble is me. Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way -"
"Or save us," Piper added hopefully. "That bit about the sleeping enemy, it sounds like the lady Leo told us about." Leo cleared his throat.
"About that... she kind of appeared to me and Cass back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge."
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"Did you say... Porta-Potty?" Jason asked. Leo told us about a giant face he and Cass saw in the factory yard.
"I don't know if she's completely unkillable, but she cannot be defeated by toilet seats. I can vouch for that." Leo declared. "She wanted me and Cass to betray you guys, and we were like, 'Pfft, right, we're going to listen to a face in the potty sludge.'"
"She's trying to divide us." Piper decided.
"What's wrong?" Jason asked her.
"I just... why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"
"Enceladus?" Jason asked.
"I mean..." Piper's voice quavered nervously. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."
"Well, I don't know about Enchiladas -" Leo stared.
"Enceladus, silly." Cass corrected, laughing.
"Right, thanks, Cass. But Old Potty Face mentioned another name. Porpoise Fear, or something?"
"Oookaay... I do not remember a giant whose name sounds like Porpoise Fear..." I said, confused.
"Porphyrion?" Piper suggested. "He was the giant king, I think."
"Hang on, wasn't Porphyrion the one who kidnapped Hera in the myths?" Katherine asked. "I mean, that was the first shot at the gods vs giants war, right?"
"I think so," Piper agreed. "But those myths are really garbled and conflicted. It's almost like Nobody wanted that story to survive. I just remember there was a war, and all the giants were almost impossible to kill."
"Heroes and gods had to work together," Jason recalled. "That's what Hera told me."
"Kind of hard to do," Leo grumbled, "if the gods won't even talk to us."

I wasn't quite sure how long he had been flying west for when Leo started singing randomly, and we broke through a break in the clouds. I was too scared to look down, so I just concentrated on what Leo (very badly) sang.
"High dive into frozen waves where the past comes back to life,
Fight fear for the selfish pain, it was worth it every time.
Hold still right before we crash 'cause we both know how this ends,
A clock ticks 'til I break your glass and I drown in you again.
'Cause you are the piece of me I wish I didn't need,
Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why!
If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?"
"Chicago," Jason realised, causing Leo to stop his awful singing of Clarity.
"One problem down," he smiled. "We got there alive. Now, how do we find the storm spirits?"
"How about we follow that one," Jason suggested, pointing below us, where I saw a flash of something dark once I braved looking down. "And see where it goes?"

ALOHA!!! I HAVE NEWS!!!!! So, thanks to my ship name generator app (for those interested - search up 'ship name' on the App Store, but make sure you're on the iPhone only section if you're not on an iPhone), Cass and I have decided that the ship name for Cass and Leo shall be Caseo! Kinda similar to Caleo, but it's sure better than Cleo. Also, the official song of Caseo is Clarity by Zedd! See you next part, my fellow demigods!