Percy watched in an ultimately surprised and amazed state, stunned into stillness. What in the world were his… cabin mates acting this way for? They seemed to have forgotten about him, giggling and chatting amongst themselves. "Um… girls?" he instantly wished he hadn't said anything.

They all whipped to him with suddenly ferocious looks. He swallowed nervously and backed away a little, thinking about reaching into his pocket for his sword/pen, but quickly abandoned the idea. These weren't one of the bloodthirsty monsters with unconquerable appetites for demigod death, but… mermaids? Were they? After all, they looked nothing like the ones down at his fathers undersea kingdom, so…

Before he knew what was happening, there was a puddle of water soaking the cuffs of his pants and shoes. This seemed harmless, until Bella suddenly made a twisting motion with her hand, and if morphed into a sticky, jelly like substance. "What the-"he didn't get to finish.

He was suddenly wrapped in another column of water, and it was frozen with a single thrust of Emma's hand. With a vicious smile, Cleo made a cage of water appear around him, and Bella turned it to jelly. Then, with a repeat of the same hand gesture, it turned glassy and hard.

"H-Hey!" the son of the sea god protested. "Let me out of here! What're you doing this for?!"

The girls all turned, and for a moment, he honestly thought they were going to leave him. However, they all relaxed against the rocks as if it were a comfortable couch, staring up at the hole in the sky. "The moon said to." Rikki answered. Ok, I'm officially convinced these guys are entirely and completely, one hundred percent whacko.

Percy tried to talk to them more, but the girls ignored him, just staring at the hole in the sky, as if the silver disk were still there, smiling contentedly. They seemed to have forgotten all about him.

With nothing better to do, the teenaged hero lie down on the sand. No sense staying awake all night and wasting all his energy. And the mermaids seemed pre-occupied with the sky, completely harmless at the moment. And with that thought in mind, he closed his eyes.

…

Percy awoke to a sharp gasp. "Oh my gosh!" Bella's voice brought him around. "Percy! Are you ok?!"

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. His odd new companions all stood on the sand, looking completely normal. Still in their clothes, no fins, no tails… had he dreamt the whole thing? It wouldn't be the strangest thing he'd ever dreamt up.

…Then he noticed the cage.

He was still stuck in the water-jelly… whatever the substance was imprisonment. He scrambled to his feet, which was pretty hard considered his feet were still stuck in the gooey jelly mixture from before. Bella stuck out her hand without hesitation, and the goop reverted instantly into water, which seeped into the sand.

Sharing looks, the girls nodded, and Rikki put out her hand. Percy cringed, thinking she was going to carry through with her previous threat of burning him down into nothing but a smoking husk, but instead, the cage started steaming and hissing, and within a few moments, it had turned back into harmless tentacles of water. Cleo's hand awaited to control the water, as not to waste it, and guided it back into the moon pool.

"Ok." He pulled out his sword, ready to defend himself if they went all crazy like before. "Answers."

"To what?"

"Oh, um, I don't know…" he began sarcastically. "How about… why the heck did you attack me last night and drag to some island in the middle of nowhere?!" Bella flinched at the explosion, while the other three looked at him curiously.

"What do you-" Rikki cut herself off. "Oh no."

"We didn't…"

"I think we did…"

"What did you see?!" all four demanded, inching toward the pool should they need to make a quick escape.

"Uh…" should he answer? Deciding lying would probably just get him into more trouble, he took a deep breath and said "Everything. You guys have water powers, and…" he swallowed, not knowing how they'd react. "And tails."

They all gasped in horror. He knew their secret! He was going to expose them to the whole world and get them dissected like high school biology lab frogs!

Rikki opened her mouth to say something, probably threaten him, but it was overridden by a gasp from all four. "Wh-what…" Emma's voice shook a little in awe, raising a finger to point behind their acquaintance. "Is that?"

That was when Annabeth's voice called from behind her boyfriend. "Percy?! Where are you?!"