Before the excitable lunchroom staff could respond, the kitchen doors blast open behind her. At the same time, the drinking fountains scattered across the hall went crashing to the ceiling, all seemingly popping out of place by gushing streams of water.

Briefly, I wondered if it was my powers that were causing the deluge. After all, I had never experienced water-related weirdness that wasn't at least partly my fault. But no, years of training at Camp-Half Blood had left my days of unknowingly drenching schoolyard aggressors far behind. Besides, as powerful as I was, even I would not be able to control the sheer volume of water that was damaging the hall without the slightest hint of strain.

At first, the confused students and staff merely attempted to protect their things from getting wet. It wasn't until the first person was flung across the room like a rag-doll that they realised there was more danger than that of simple water damage.

All at once, something clicked in their minds and seemingly the whole school irrupted into frantic screams. Somewhere, someone hit the emergency fire alarm which only added to the noise and chaos.

The interim principal, Mr. Cole ran into the hall with surprising agility for a man of his career. He was dressed in a simple black suit and held a megaphone in his hand. He yelled into it, "Everybody, out of the building!"

I quite liked Mr. Cole, his community outreach initiative was the primary reason I could even attend Midtown High. And his willingness to charge into danger in aid of his dependents only improved my opinion of him.

"Use the fire exits! The main entrances have been blocked. I repeat, use the fire exits!" He held the megaphone in one hand and used the other to help some of the more floundering students.

I pulled Peter, who had ducked behind the food counters, to his feet. Nudging him towards the emergency stairwell, I said, "Come on, get out of here! I'll be right behind you."

Peter stumbled forward and turned to complain. Before he could speak, one of the thicker tendrils of water thrashed towards his head. Luckily, he ducked away just in time. However, his momentum drove him into the sea of people running for the exit and he was carried out by the mass of bodies.

I took a second to assess the situation. All around me, the water had formed into vines and was thrashing at everything on the floor. Oddly though, nothing was wet. The water was focused into streams but when it hit something, none of it was left behind. Instead, it wreaked blunt-force trauma on all things and people in its meandering path.

Mr. Cole was still helping people up but his attention, divided as it was between booming instructions and giving a hand, could only do so much.

It was funny. Barely a couple of weeks ago I had concluded that without powers, gods or monsters, I would finally live a normal life - free of danger. But now that I was in a dangerous situation, not once did my mind wonder how I could extract myself from it. No, all I could think of, was how I could resolve it.

With no sight nor clue of an enemy or cause, my first priority was to get people to safety. I ducked and weaved through what was slowly becoming a veritable storm of watery vines, making my way to the closest struggling student.

I think his name was Ned, a mildly rotund Filipino boy I shared 'Greek History' with. His excitement about Greek Mythology always reminded me of Nico and he'd cornered me to talk about it on more than one occasion.

Ned's backpack had somehow entangled itself with the legs of an upturned lunch table. He was struggling frantically to pull himself out but that only served to tighten the knots. In his panic, he failed to realise he could just leave the bag.

"Just leave it!" I cried as I yanked the straps off his shoulders and helped him up. He started to thank me profusely but I just pushed him towards the fire escape, "Get out of here!"

I flitted from person to person, urging some to just leave their stuff behind and lifting debris off of others. Most of the floor had been cleared when the vines started to coalesce in front of the only teacher still in the hall, Dr. Smith.

She must have been hit with one of the many objects being flung around the room because she was on the ground, nursing a bloody brow.

"Dr. Smith!" I called in a panic.

She looked up only to see the sphere of water growing larger right before her. She scrambled back in a panic but her expression slowly transformed into one of fascination.

As I moved towards her, the sphere elongated into a silhouette of a man. They seemed to be conversing but I was too far away to hear the words. The body seemed to grow more and more agitated, as it did, so did the remaining tubes of water around him.

The body yelled with the voice of a man, "Because of you, I have become irony!" Tendrils of water grew out of the body once again, simultaneously the remaining vines reeled back as though winding up for a focused attack.

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However, before they could strike, I reached the body and tackled it away from Dr. Smith. As the vines of water fell to the ground around us, I bounced back up.

"If you ask me, you're a lot more watery than irony, but what do I know? Besides, the name 'Iron Man' is taken, trademarked and everything or so I'm told. How about Aqua-Man?" I smirked, emboldened by the fact that I could physically affect him.

Instead of getting up the watery man squeezed into a ball and then elongated back into shape. "I have no quarrel with you boy, try that again and I will."

I didn't pay his warning any heed and weaponless as I was, decided that punching the water dude would be the best course of action - the tackle had worked after all. Of course, things would never be that easy and instead of my fist making contact with his gut, it went straight through a gap formed by the ever-shifting water.

"That won't be working twice, short stack," the man attempted a villainous laugh but the sound of gargling water ruined the effect.

"Short stack?!" I complained incredulously, "You're like an inch taller than me with stilts!"

The man did seem rather tall before I had tackled him to the ground, but without the excess water holding him up he had reverted to what must have been his natural height.

He growled in rage and then doubled in size like an anime villain, "Oh yeah? How do you like me now?"

"You and you're big mouth, Percy," I muttered as I dodged beams of water shooting out of his palms. The attacks were strong enough to shatter glass and bore straight through the wooden tables. They might not kill me, but they sure as heck would hurt.

While he distracted me with knock-off 'Kamehamehas', a watery hand formed from his body and attempted to capture Dr. Smith in a vice. She shrieked and ducked out of the way with all the grace of an elephant on roller skates.

"You know what, you're right," I called out in an attempt to distract him, "That's taken too. How about Hydro-Man?"

I was at a loss for what to do. This was usually around the time when Annabeth would come up with some brilliant strategy and save my hide. At this rate he was going to destroy the whole school and it won't be long before he got his hands on Dr. Smith too.

I was starting to grow frustrated. If I still had my powers, this would have been so easy. But despite trying to call on them from the very start of the altercation I had felt no response. He was made of water for the sake of the gods, one snap of my fingers would have had him evaporated.

'Wait, that's it!' I thought as a light bulb sparked on in my head. I knew I had to lead him to the fourth floor but as much as he wanted me out of the way, he seemed determined to get his hands on Dr. Smith. I'd need her help.

"Dr. Smith! Pop quiz!" I yelled, "What happens when an Alkali metal interacts with water?"

At first, she looked at me in an expression of panicked confusion that seemed to scream, 'Are you fucking kidding me?' But the cogs in her brain didn't have to turn long for her to understand my meaning. Her subsequent grin was almost maniacal.

She bolted for the stairs but the recently dubbed Hydro-Man wasn't just going to sit and watch. He mobilised nearly all the water in the lunchroom to converge on her from all sides but before they could meet, Dr. Smith had been catapulted up the first flight of stairs and I stood in her place.

With the luck of Tyche, herself, Dr. Smith landed on her feet and dashed further up the stairwell. Meanwhile, Hydro-Man's watery face sported a shocked expression. He had not seen how quickly I could move as I had tackled him from behind.

"Quick little bugger, aren't you?" he snarled, "Well there's nowhere to run now!"

He was right. He held me in a sphere of water and no amount of struggling seemed to allow me to break free.

At first, I was quite okay with that. After all, being submerged in water used to be my idea of meditation. But I quickly realised that my body was beginning to starve for oxygen. Unlike before, not only could I not literally breathe underwater but I could no longer passively absorb oxygen either - as I used to before I learnt of my heritage.

I began to panic. For the first time in my life, I was experiencing the horrific feeling of drowning and I was helpless to stop it. The more I struggled, the more urgent the need for fresh air became and Hydro-Man was not going to allow me that luxury. He seemed determined to finish me.

Death by drowning. Now that would be a pathetic end for a son of Poseidon.

I was losing strength and my vision was slowly darkening when the voice of Mr. Cole rang out from behind the watery villain, "Let the kid go Mr. Bench!"

The man just laughed and began to gloat, "Guns can no longer harm m-"

I heard a high-pitched electrical zap and suddenly I was on the floor, drenched but once again able to breathe.

"It wasn't a gun," said Mr. Cole calmly as he tossed a sleek, black taser to the ground. He muttered to me as he helped me to my feet, "Good thing that wasn't salt water, huh?"

"Why did you throw it away?" I managed between gasps for breath.

"One-time use only," he succinctly replied. "We better get to Daphne before he reforms, the taser does not have nearly enough voltage to stop him."

I gave him a shaky nod and together, we ran up the stairs and towards the Chemistry Lab.

Somehow, in the time it took to break out of the ball of water and reach the lab, Dr. Smith had not only placed a chunk of Lithium in a vacuum chamber and chopped it up into powder but also fashioned a container to house it.

I was quite used to adults barking orders and kids my age dealing with dangerous situations which was why I had been quite peeved that Dr. Smith handed what was essentially a grenade of Lithium to Mr. Cole. I mean, it was totally my idea! It never really occurred to me that either of them felt responsible for my safety.

The laboratory door smashed open just as Mr. Cole was done reassuring Dr. Smith, for the fourth time, that he would not miss and that he understood that they only had one shot. The teachers had both placed themselves under the desk in the front of the class and I had been relegated to the back.

The plan was simple. From the sounds of smashing doors, we could tell that water-boy, or Morris Bench as I was told he was named, had no idea where we were. He was breaking into every room on the floor one by one. So, I would stand at the end of the classroom and do what I do best. Annoy the shit out of him. That would distract him and Mr. Cole could throw the grenade from his hiding place behind the desk. Easy as pie.

Unfortunately, Bench didn't really care to listen to anything I had to say. Instead of his usual posturing and threatening he sent his vines straight for the kill. My eyes widened in shock and although I had dodged the worst of it, I still earned several large cuts and bruises.

"Um, any time now Mr. Cole!" I yelled. My line of sight was blocked by the body of water and I had no idea why they could be hesitating.

Dr. Smith screamed in anguish, "No!"

Then the world exploded around me.