The Mermaids' Royalty

Chapter Fifteen

THIRD POV

Percy smiled as he felt the water surrounding him, energizing his muscles and wiping away any lingering thoughts of school. The girls all giggled as Lewis gave a startled yell when Percy asked the ocean to pick up the trusted human. Just laying in the small waves, Percy grimaced at all of the jewels adorning himself. "Sometimes, I swear my father is more dramatic than Zeus." The girls giggled as a wave came up and splashed Percy's face, causing the demigod to chuckle. "Whatever Dad. You know I don't like stuff like this." Suddenly, the necklace around Percy's throat became the extravagant crown and the sea prince groaned, sticking his face in his arms. Lewis even laughed at Percy predicament, snapping the son of Poseidon out of his pity party. "Fine, laugh it up, but I'll still win this challenge." The girls stopped laughing in a split-second, going into serious mode. "Whatever you say Fishface, you obviously don't know how much our tails weigh. Percy scoffed, using the waves to push them all out into deeper water while encasing Lewis in a protective water bubble. Emma and Bella swam over to him while Rikki and Cleo stretched. "No powers either, just pure skill." Percy let his troublemaker smirk out and grabbed both the girls around the waists, lifting his eyebrows in emphasis. Bella rolled her eyes while Emma laughed, both slapping his arms. Percy chuckled and brought Lewis closer so he could start the race. "Alright guys, I want a clean race. No hitting or bumping, cutting off or chasing. It's going to be from here to the moon pool. First one to enter the tunnel is the winner. Good luck, and Percy, please don't let this bubble up." Percy only shook his head slightly and moved his trident into Lewis' bubble. "Tails ready? Okay. On your marks... Get set... Go!" The mers shot off faster than a pistol, hitting one hundred miles per hour faster than any car. Lewis gave another loud yell as his bubble started traveling faster than he anticipated, making him fall against the barrier, eyes wide. The mers were easily going over five hundred miles per hour near the quarter way point, and Emma and Bella smirked when they noticed Percy lagging a bit behind the girls. A small chuckle sounding in their ears for a brief second, causing the girls to frown; especially when Percy kicked it up a notch, easily passing Mach One at nine hundred miles per hour. Cleo felt her eyes widen as she heard a pop sound throughout the water, watching Percy easily pull ahead of them. Rikki grit her teeth and went faster, just managing to break the sound barrier. Cleo followed behind quickly and they both picked up to Percy with half the trip left. 'Prepare yourselves' could be heard, whispered to both Emma and Bella before Percy's arms tightened around them, causing the girls to worriedly grab at his scaled shoulders. Seconds later, they felt the g-force on them increase exponentially as Percy went fast. At over 1,600 miles per hour, Percy broke Mach Two and rocketed the rest of the way to the tunnel in less than thirty seconds. Forced to use his powers, Percy commanded the water to slow him down and direct them into the tunnel safely. Percy still hit the inner wall of the pool at around fifty miles per hour, but the water had already created a cushion for him, and no harm came to anyone on impact- though Emma and Bella needed a bit to calm their stomachs, settle their heart, and get their heads back on straight. Two minutes after Percy's finish, Rikki and Cleo came in, luckily also hitting the cushion, as they couldn't control their speed the way Percy did. Lewis also floated in in his bubble a few seconds after the girls, holding his head and his stomach. "Remind me... to never... do that again." Percy smirked as he finally got his breathing under control. "Why not? I'd say it was pretty fun." Emma stared at Percy while Bella shrieked. "Fun?! We could have died!" Rikki and Cleo nodded their heads, still breathing hard from the tasking swim. "But we didn't." Percy pointed finger guns at Bella and chuckled. At Emma's raised eyebrows, Percy put up his hands, palms out. "Hey, I'm a demigod- we're notorious for doing deadly things. Like that time my namesake went up against a tree-bending idiot three times his size, and still beat him... Yeah, we do awesome, deadly stuff." Percy snickered as he thought of all the things Perseus had done. "Whatever, I wanna know though- how did you get so freakin' fast?" Percy looked upwards slanted, which also happened to make sunlight glint off his many jewels. "I was born this way." Bella snorted in laughter as she laid against the rock step. "Yeah right Perce. I'll believe that when pigs fly." The group smiled collectively while Percy hummed. "Well...." Emma groaned. "Don't tell me there are flying pigs?" Percy laughed, pulling himself half-way out of the water. "No, that'd be ridiculous." Cleo giggled while Lewis finally calmed his stomach. "Can you let me out of this bubble now Percy? I'd rather be on solid land." Percy nodded and let him out, quickly creating water steps to get Lewis to the sand surrounding the moon pool. "I never got to ask- how'd you guys get here? I presume that your mermaidness was created under the light of the wondrous full moon?" Emma and Cleo nodded while Rikki grimaced, but nodded her head too. "Well, Zane played a prank on me with one of his small boats because I was terrified of water. I was stuck on it before Rikki jumped on and started the engine with the missing piece. We then had fun going round the marina before spotting Emma and pulling her on. We decided to go to Mako to explore and fell through a hole near a stream which lead us into a cavern connecting to this room, which we found a few minutes later. We knew we couldn't climb out back through the hole, and Emma being the swimmer she was, found the tunnel and made it our escape route. I was reluctant to swim through though, and we all ended up being in the pool when the moon was exactly overhead, starting the magic that caused us to change into half-mermaids." Emma and Rikki nodded throughout the whole thing while Bella listened attentively, hearing this for the first time as well. "I also found a type of moon pool. My parents were gone a lot so I explored Ireland all the time. When I was nine, I decided to go swimming in it and it just so happened to be under a full moon... But anyway, how'd you become a merman Percy?" Using his powers to dry him off, Percy returned to his normal form, surprising the girls for a second. "I was out swimming on the last full moon when a part of the ocean grabbed me and pulled me through the tunnel and into here. It held me still in the water until the full moon passed, and then when I went to shower the next day, I wasn't in my human form any longer." Cleo, Emma, and Bella gasped as Rikki cursed. "The tentacle? I thought we had saved the pool, causing that thing to go away. It almost exposed us quite a few times." Percy hummed as he twirled Riptide in his hands. "It seems something bad is happening again then. What happened last time?" Emma looked uncomfortable while the other girls seemed to go back into their memories. "A giant comet had entered Earth's atmosphere and was threatening to destroy everything. We had to use the moon pool's magic and our powers to stop the comet and save most, if not the whole, world." Percy nodded and leaned back, putting his pen away while Lewis grew extremely worried. "If it's anything like last time, this situation is going to be even worse, now that we have yet another mer helping us out. Hopefully we'll be able to stop it again this time though." Emma and Cleo nodded as a grim look grew on everyone's face. The seriousness of the situation settling on all of their weary shoulders.