The Return of the Sea

A Probe of the City

 PERCY POV

We entered the town to find it in utter chaos. People were running around. Mobs were fighting everywhere, there was a weird feeling of love around. To top it off, there was a peculiar aura that resembled a god, but at the same time seemed too intense to be godly.

The three of us became cautioned while Zack just stared at us. The three of us looked at him. His eyes were getting misty. Artemis went ahead and smacked his head to bring him back to his senses. Maybe she hit him too hard because his face went straight into the dirt in front. Either way, it did the trick.

We expected the idiot to get up silently, after all, he should be used to getting beat up by now. But as soon as he woke up he had an angry face instead of his general dumbness. He looked at me with raging anger, but when he looked at Artemis, his anger changed to a weird pleasured look. He tried to crawl towards Artemis with that freaky face but Artemis didn't want to have any of it. As soon as he tried to touch her leg, she kicked him on his face and blew him away.

As Zack fell unconscious, Artemis turned around and said "Let's go. We should split up here and look for the cause of this chaos. Try to avoid dealing with the crazy ones." With that, we left the unconscious idiot behind and went into the city.

As we entered from the eastern end, Artemis took the northern portion, I took the west while Annabeth took the southern. As I walked around, I tried to stop a few fights, which coincidentally or not, were all happening due to common love interests. I found it very strange. To top it off, each one of them seemed to have misty eyes similar to those of Zack when we entered the town.

I tried asking around but it was useless since everyone I tried to ask either wanted a fight or were too busy fawning on their significant other. On walking around a bit more, I felt the aura strengthen a bit. I tried to follow the aura, only to reach an unnaturally busy hospital.

Maybe it's due to the fights. I thought, but then I saw the number of people coming out. People were coming out as others entered as if they were cured as they entered. I located my way through the crowded entrance to see the source of the near-instantaneous heals. As soon as I entered, on the receptionist's table sat a six feet figure wearing an unbuttoned doctor's coat with a bed in front of him. The hair was so blonde, it was hard to not realise that it was the one and only Apollo.

Of course! Who else would be sitting in the middle of a hospital healing people like it is nothing? The doctors were just sitting on the sofa nearby and looking at Apollo miraculously healing every patient in instants, making notes.

I sighed, and Apollo turned towards me. "Oh hey, Percy. Didn't expect to see you here! Here to get a treatment from your one and only?" He laughed.

"Just what are you doing here?" I sighed. "is all the godly aura around the town yours?"

"Oh, I guess you didn't know about that yet...."

"Know about what?"

"Nothing."

"If you are not willing to tell me, I have a better way of knowing."

Apollo frowned. "A better way?"

I smiled and texted a certain someone. Within minutes, Artemis was in the hospital. Apollo let out a sweat as Artemis, to the doctor's dismay, pulled him out of the hospital by the ear. "So what's happening around here? You better answer me while you still can." Artemis growled.

Apollo cowered in fear. "Well.... I and Dhanwantari are competing to see who is the better at healing people."

"WHAT?" Artemis yelled.

"Who is Dhanwantari?" I asked.

"Hear me out first." Apollo Pleaded. "We are here only as damage control. And as for your question, Percy, Dhanwantari is the Hindu god of healing. We saw the situation here and decided to compete who could do a better job at healing others."

"Stop, stop, stop," Artemis exclaimed, rubbing her head. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY DAMAGE CONTROL? Wait, Percy could you please bring out Dhanwantari"

I nodded and walked up to the hospital a block away. And entered to see a man of dark complexion similarly sitting on the reception to that of Apollo. He was shirtless with just an unbuttoned lab coat on himself. His chiselled body was visible for the whole world to see. He wore glasses and had slightly curly hair wrapped in a ponytail. He was healing his patients at a pace similar to Apollo and stopped as he saw me.

"Oh you are that child Lord Vishnu took interest in, aren't you? What do I owe the visit?" He said with a gentle smile. His voice was deep with a hint of an Indian accent.

"Oh um, Apollo has called off the match and is calling you outside." I lied.

"Haha, looked like the sucker admitted defeat." He boomed and walked with me outside. Outside he was greeted by an angry Artemis. Sooner than not, he too was cowering like Apollo. Annabeth, who had arrived as well, put her hand on her hand and whispered "The parallels seem to be countless."

"Alright both of you, answer me. What is going on in this town?"

"We have nothing to do with this," Apollo claimed.

"Yes, we were just arguing whether Ayurveda is better than the western medicine, which it clearly is." Dhanwantari continued.

"Nah dude, western medicine is superior. Either way, we were debating, when we noticed that this town was having an unnatural number of patients."

"So we decided to compete here buy seeing who could cure more people by daybreak without using our godly powers. I would have won if we weren't interrupted."

"Shush it pipsqueak." Artemis scolded. "So what's the reason for this chaos?"

"We are not completely sure since we went straight to the hospitals without a wait," Dhanwantari answered earnestly. "Yeah, however, I do know that the aura originates from east of here," Apollo said. "You might find some old faces I feel, judging from the aura."

I was confused. Artemis allowed both of them to continue with their competition since it was overall helping the people. We walked eastwards and saw that the number of people showing that weird behaviour increased, confirming that there was something in the east.

"Did the idiot wake up?" Artemis asked, referring to Zack. Annabeth shook her head. We soon reached a garden, where two tables stood, each hosting one completely new entity and one quite acquainted one. If anything, it was a déjà vu.

I know I said that I would post a new chapter on 24 but something came up so I'll post it on 25(or 26 but likely 25)

Sorry for making you guys wait so long, I was so stuffed with work that I completely forgot about the story. I promise it won't happen again.