Chapter 66: Kids, don't try this at home

' Percy '

We stood on a short pier that was connected to a square with multiple pier shops.

We were completely surrounded on all sides.

In front of us stood the Manticore surrounded 15 wolves and the same amount of mercenaries with automatic rifles.

On the rooftops from the pier shops hundreds and hundreds of Stymphalian birds were watching us, their red eyes focused at us and I knew they were waiting for a command.

On the next boat dock over were more mercenaries, making sure we could not leave that way.

Two helicopters were scouting through the air, circling around us like we were a group of escaped prisoners.

The mist must have been strong because there were no mortals around.

"Game over." Lycaon growled.

"Can someone tell that stupid dog to shut his mouth." Nyx taunted, she held a dagger in her left hand and her whip in her right hand.

Zoë and Bianca had their bows out and Thalia held her spear and Aegis which made the mortal mercenaries flinch and hard to focus on us.

The wolves growled upon seeing the shield but did not retreat.

"I see Kronos considers us a threat, seeing how heavily we are outnumbered." I said, "Guess we are really dangerous."

The Manticore laughed, "Kronos only wants to bargain, he wants to make sure you understand what the stakes are."

"What does he wants?" Thalia asked.

He pointed at Bessie, "He wants the Ophiotaurus and the daughter of Zeus."

"He's getting neither one of them." Zoë said glaring at the Manticore.

"Why does Kronos wants Thalia?" Bianca said.

"Because the prophecy." Nyx explained, "He wants Thalia to sacrifice the dinosaurus so she can destroy Olympus."

"Ophiotaurus." I corrected Nyx.

Thalia looked pale, then she glared at the Manticore, "Well say Kronos he can stick the Ophiotaurs in his but."

Bessie winced, "Moooo."

"Figurally speaking." Thalia added.

"See, you're not getting what you want." I told the Manticore.

Lycaon growled and had a smile, "You forget one thing, there are right now four children of the big three. We can kill everyone here and retrieve the last one from camp."

Bianca paled, "He's at camp, you can't harm him there."

Lycaon laughed, "Like that border ever stopped monsters."

His confidence made me unsure, did he really found a way inside camp?

The Manticore sighed, "Well then there is no other option than killing everyone,"

Like they waited for his command the birds flew straight up, shrieking in delight.

The wolves opened their mouths and slowly stepped closer to us, like we were rabbits trapped in a corner.

The human mercenaries lifted their rifles at us.

We raised our weapons, I summoned Frostsilver and waited for the enemy to strike.

"I just wanted to tell you," Thalia's voice trembled, "It was nice knowing you all."

"Same here." I said.

Suddenly I heard the sound of a Foghorn.

It was loud and came out of nowhere, for a few seconds it was like invisible speakers from all across the pier were playing the sounds of an foghorn.

It was loud and it disturbed the Stymphalian birds, who were now flying against each other and banging their heads against the rooftops.

Everyone, except the birds, froze on spot, confused by the new sound.

The Mercenaires glanced at us then gasped and stumbled backwards, the wolves followed and showed opened their mouth threatenly, showing their fangs.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" The Manticore sneered but there was a bit of fear in his eyes, he looked at us with disgust and confusion.

My mind automatically translated what the Manticore said to, what is this?

Maybe Aphrodite's blessing made me understand French.

The foghorn stopped for a second and then continued, like it was taunting.

Then I realized they were not starting with fear at us but something behind us.

We were becoming a team because we all realized it at the same time and turned around.

Behind us, laying in the water had a ship appeared.

The ship was large, 100 feet long and fully rigged, black cannon barrels stuck out of the sides and on top of the deck stood more cannons, their barrels aimed at the sky.

Painted on the prow of the three-mast ship was written, Queen Anne's Revenge.

The Foghorn was now clearly coming from the 200 ton vessel, and I cheered out loud, Anne!

The wood on the middle deck groaned and my mind translated it to Hey

"What's that?" Zoë asked in awe.

"Anne!" Nyx cried out, "Kill those bastards." and she pointed at the wolves and the Manticore.

"What?" Thalia asked, suddenly bullets flew past our heads and we were forced to duck, The bullets penetrated into the Anne and the wood splintered.

The cannons moved automatically and aimed at the mercenaries, I counted around 18 cannons on the side.

18 cannons released a beam of fire at the same time, fire engulfed the mercenaries with flames and burned them to crips.

Half of them died immediately but the rest scattered and began shooting at us and the ship. I called up a massive wave from behind me and it washed over us. I wielded it to turn into a bol and froze it making us the first demigods ever to be stuck inside a big snow globe.

Bullets struck the ice but failed to penetrate it, though I knew it would be a matter of time before the snowglobe would break.

Through the ice we saw the flamethrowers burn away massive amounts of birds, making them flee.

However besides the birds things were not looking good for Anne, the wolves and mercenaries were taking cover behind benches, pier shops and trash bins.

The flamethrowers were getting weaker with the second, the beams had less reach then first and moved slower and I had the idea Anne could get tired.

The Manticore was shouting commands at the mercenaries, who shot at Anne from strategic spots where Anne's flamethrowers couldn't reach them.

The bullets made the wood splinter and one of the sails was shredded to parts.

The biggest problem were the two helicopters.

They were shooting mercilessly at Anne, their machine guns ripping appart the wood on the bow. The cannons at the top deck were not able to shoot back at the helicopters who were moving fast and were way more agile than the cannons.

"What's going on?" Thalia asked.

"Anne, a ship I ran into last summer, she is alive and able to fight." I told them quickly.

Zoë nodded because this kind of things are kind of common in the life of a demigod.

"Okay, what we do?" Nyx asked, "Want to blow something up?"

"No, I have a good idea." I said and grabbed a drachma out of my pocket.

"What's your plan?" Bianca asked.

"Something good, I hope."

I threw up the drachma in the snowglobe and forced a thin layer ice above us to turn into mist.

The drachma disappears into the mist, "Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering."

"Iris message?" Zoë asked, glancing outside and seeing that the ship was now clearly fighting a battle she could not win.

I nodded, "Show me Thera, probably somewhere at camp Half-blood."

The mist above my head changed into a flickering image of the hearth, Hestia and Thera were talking, sitting on the snow and drinking hot chocolate.

Thera sat with her back to me, "Thera!" I yelled.

"Why did you call here?" Thalia asked.

"She's a camp protector, I figured out she can also protect campers."

It was a long shot but I figured that lava might be better than grape's. Especially with werewolves and flying helicopters.

Thera turned around and her eyes lit up, well more than normal considering that her eyes were burning like Hestia's.

"Percy!" Thera said with delight, "You're alright."

Then she noticed the surroundings, "Are you in a snowglobe?"

I shook my time, "No time, can you do something for me."

She nodded, "Of course, what can I do?"

"We are having a small trouble, can you summon a mini volcano and blast all the bad guys away?"

I frowned, "To far away?"

She shook her head, "I can summon a geyser of lava there but I can't control it from this distance. It could burn you and your friends away."

I wanted to argue but Hestia stared at Thera and I had the idea she was having a mental conversation.

Thera's eyes lit up and she said, "Percy, you can control the lava, if I summon the lava geyser you could bend it."

I frowned,

"You can bend lava?" Zoë asked.

"I can't bend lava," I told Thera and Zoë, "Only fire."

Hestia gave me a warm smile that filled me with hope, "You can Percy."

"Percy, the ice is breaking." Nyx said tapping me nervously on the shoulder.

I gritted my teeth, "I can't." I insisted.

Hestia kept smiling, "Percy you can control fire, your father is the god of earthquakes. Lava should come naturally at you."

I frowned, "That's not how it works."

She chuckled, "Just like summoning sharks?"

"You saw that?"

Hestia waved it away, "The point is, you can do it."

"I never done something like that, if I fail." I began and continued the sentence in my head, 'I could kill my friends.'

'But you won't.' Hemera reassured me, 'You can do it.'

"Besides," Thera began, "You already did it before."

"When?" Nyx asked interested,

"Percy." Thalia cried out and pointed at the ice, cracks were spreading across the surface.

"When you used the flask to release me from my vulcano, it was not just the flask." Thera said, "It was also you wielding the magma to disappear."

Nyx placed her hand on my shoulder, "You can do it Percy, just go with the flow."

I wanted to tell her that I could not do it but she gave me a warm smile that said, you can do it Percy, or I beat you up for failing.

I closed my eyes, "Okay, let's do it."

The Iris message disappeared and the ground began to shake, the wolves and mercenaries started to tremble and fell to the ground. The earth boomed and I felt the same gut sensation when I blew up Mount Saint Helens.

The ice scattered globe around us scattered and covered my friends with tiny shards of ice, but they did not fell to the ground, I forced the earthquake to ignore my friends and only affect the enemy.

Around me cracks began to form in the stone foundation, the woods on the pier we were standing on was still intact, to my surprise I the woods planks connect with each other, holding each other together.

Water began to swirl around the pier and slammed into the foundation, like it was trying to tear it apart.

Then in the middle of the square a beam of lava erupted from the ground, the beam was bigger than the ones I've seen before, it was around 20 feet wide and reached so high it burned away both helicopters, however what goes up eventually comes down and I instinctively knew that if the magma would fall down it would cover the entire place and turn this place into Pompeii 2.0.

I raised my hands at the beam of lava and mentally told it stop spurting.

The lava geyser immediately stopped, now I had only to worry about the deadly lava rain.

I glanced at the lava who was now falling down and told it to swirl around me and ignore my friends and buildings.

The magma flew towards me and it made me flinch, but instead of burning away everything on its path it acted like water, swirling around me forming a slow tornado. It touched Zoë for a brief second but instead of hurting her it went straight through her like it was an illusion.

"You did it!' Thalia cried out.

"Awesome!" Nyx said with awe.

I glared at the Manticore and Lycaon, "Think about something positive." I told them before I moved my arms forwards and the lava that was swirling around me swirled forward, like a tornado.

Lycaon was fast, before the lava could reach him he fled and ran away, followed by 4 other wolves.

The others, weren't so lucky.

There was nowhere to run to, Lava swirled over the square, like a octopus different tentacles of lava burned away wolves mortals and even a trash bin, it ignored buildings and other objects.

When there was nothing left to burn for me, I wielded the lava to go into the ocean.

When I got rid of all the lava I collapsed onto my knees and gasped, "I need an Aspirin." I mumbled before I blacked out.