18: Demigods of the Caribbean

                                    

                                          


                          
EIGHTEEN
                          
            What did Zeus say when the sons Poseidon, Mars, and Hades walked halfway across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean? HA! Man, what is wrong with you guys? 
                          
            The joke sucked. Then again, running halfway across the bottom of the Atlantic (or swimming, in the case of Frank the shark), also sucked. Maybe it sucked even more than the joke. Percy didn't know.
                          
            They were being chased. That bugged him. As the son of Poseidon, Percy was supposed to be able to control the seas. He was supposed to know what was coming in the water. He wasn't supposed to be chased halfway around the world on the bottom of the ocean. 
                          
            Finally, he saw a cave. "In here!" he shouted, grabbing Nico's arm and Frank's tail. He pulled them into the cave with him, putting a hand over Nico's mouth. Nico hissed and glared at Percy. The son of Hades really hated being touched. 
                          
            Geryon whirled past the cave entrance, howling and screaming Percy's name.
                          
            Percy made a fist with his hand. A bubble enveloped him, Frank, and Nico. Frank began flailing in the bubble, unable to breathe without the water. After a minute, he was himself again: bulky, red-faced, and human.
                          
            Nico closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath. "I thought you said you could give me an hour of oxygen."
                          
            Percy grunted. "I didn't have a calculator or a stopwatch on me at the time. I did the best I could. I didn't even know I could give you air down here."
                          
            Frank shivered. "If I ever smell blood again, I'm going to hurl." He eyed Percy's cuts and scrapes distastefully. "I'm also never judging that shark in Finding Nemo again."
                          
            Nico clutched a stitch in his side. "How long have we been at this?"
                          
            "Two and a half hours since the last break," Percy said. His nautical senses were flawless this deep in the ocean. "It's been forty minutes since I gave you your last air ammo."
                          
            Frank glanced at the cave entrance. They could still hear Percy's name being called again and again, along with cries for his blood. "Bet he doesn't need breaks and air ammo."
                          
            Percy glared at the ground. A small crab skittered along. It asked Percy and his friends not to step on him. Percy promised they wouldn't. "Yeah, he's a pretty special guy."
                          
            Nico shook his head. "So, what now? We can't keep running across the Atlantic and hope Geryon never catches us."
                          
            "Well, we can't surface, either," Frank pointed out. "You saw what happened."
                          
            Nico nodded grimly. Percy had led them up to the surface when he found them, unconscious at the bottom of the ocean. They had been in the middle of nowhere. The Argo II was long gone, just a speck on the distant horizon. Worse, the air above the surface seemed like poison to Nico and Frank. They had started coughing and both of them had nearly passed out. Percy submerged them again, performing CPR on both of them. Technically, he had kissed Frank Zhang and Nico di Angelo in less than five minutes. Boy, did he have a lot of explaining to do the next time he saw Annabeth, Hazel, or Will. 
                          
            Thanks to the CPR, however, Nico and Frank discovered they could breathe underwater. It was as though Percy had imparted some of his son of Poseidon powers. It had freaked Frank out so much, he'd morphed into a shark. 
                          
            Still. Better than a giant goldfish.
                          
            Geryon had been chasing them since they fell back into the water. He'd already hit Percy with several more arrows. He'd healed in minutes, but still. They hurt like Hades. The water healed Frank and Nico, too. Percy wondered how much of his powers he had imparted on them. They couldn't form waves or whirlpools to distract Geryon like he could, though. Percy was glad. He liked being the only one that could do that.