Third POV

"We win, we can ask you any question we want, and you have to answer. You win, we allow you to use the moon pool."
Percy shrugged at the terms while all of the girls smirked, confident in their skills. "Sounds cool to me," he said. Percy honestly didn't care if he had to tell the girls about his world or not, but he was worried for their safety. He didn't totally believe they would really be in any danger though. No monsters had shown up in Australia yet, and not every mortal that knows of the mythological world is an attraction to monsters.
Cleo, Emma, Bella, and Rikki couldn't believe he had agreed to their bet. It was completely tilted in their favor, added with the fact that they had been mermaids longer, so they had no way to loose.
Though Cleo did have doubt in her mind. She remembered how Percy had swam when he took her to the beach. He hadn't even had a tail at that time, so she could only imagine how fast he could swim now. The more she thought about it, the more unsure she became.
"Guys. Group huddle?" Cleo called nervously.
Percy was surprised, but just laughed and walked away from the group as they circled up. Bella and Emma were both confused, but Rikki just wanted to kick the little merman's tailed behind.
"What's up Cleo?" Bella asked. Unsure if Percy could hear them or not, Cleo leaned in closer to her friends.
"You guys know how I said Percy swam really fast?" They all nodded. "Well, I think Percy just got a ton faster. Think about it. Emma is our fastest swimmer because she swam so fast without a tail. Percy could swim almost double my top speed, and that was without a tail. How fast can he swim now?"
Rikki groaned. "It's like a freaking math problem," she groused. "We aren't in school yet, don't do this to me Cleo!" She whined.
The girls all smiled in amusement, but Emma's face quickly returned to worry. "Cleo's right though. What are we going to do? Now we don't have a way to beat Mr. Mysterious over there. We'd be lucky to even keep up with him, let alone pull ahead."
Every girl frowned again, not liking the new look of their competition.
Emma suddenly thought of an idea, one that she was sure would at least help. "What if we started a type of chain link, each one of us grabs onto the tail in front of us and we all swim our fastest. It should work like a type of chain reaction, propelling us forward at a greater speed."
Cleo and Bella faces showed their excitement and nervousness, but Rikki's was set with determination. She just wanted to swim fast.
Rikki nodded, looking at the other girls, a serious look upon her face. "Let's do this," she said. "It's our best chance to find out what he is hiding from us."
The other girls nodded in agreement, stepping out of their huddle. They all walked over to where Percy was playing with watery shapes, and he dropped the water back into the ocean with a smile on his face, anticipation and mischief etched in his sea green eyes.
"You guys ready to do this?"
Bella stepped in forward, intending on leading the group. "Only if you're ready to lose," she challenged.
Percy laughed and released his control on the water under their feet. The girls screamed as they all went crashing back into the water. Percy kept laughing as he created air bubbles around their heads.
"No worries! I didn't forget this time," he winked. The merman drifted away slightly after this, letting the water change his shape once more.
The son of Poseidon stretched out his many different muscles, from his fingers to the very tips of his fins, until he felt completely relaxed.
The girls were nearly vibrating with anticipation, while every fish within a ten mile radius quickly hid inside their respective habitats, sensing the aura of warning spreading from their over-excited prince.
"Where to?" The teen asked.
The girls all looked up, in a silent conversation. In unison, they smirked. "We'll race to the moon pool. First one to the entrance wins."
Cleo got in front of Rikki while Bella swam in front of her. "Ready?" Percy asked.
Bella swam in front of Cleo, before proclaiming, "Go!"
Emma raced behind Rikki and they were off.
"Hey! Wait up! I don't know the way there!"
The girls didn't hear him, and they quickly initiated their chain link, smiling in glee and pride when they realized they were easily leaving Percy in their wake.
The merman chuckled to himself at their tricks and quickly blasted off, following their trail of bubbles. He would just have to catch up at the end.
Within two minutes, Percy was in front of the girls again, propelling himself with both water /and/ his tail. It was no wonder as to why he was winning, but the race was a lot closer than it should have been. The son of Poseidon had the disadvantage of having no idea how to get to the moon pool.
Percy quickly dove under a coral arch, watching as the girls sailed over it. Percy smirked, the match wasn't over yet.
The girls were unable to see anything but in front of them, due to the bubbles surrounding their forms. They were following their instincts though, as they had memorized the way to Mako.
Percy's smirk widened as he rounded another bend, seeing the girls only being able to take wide turns. Anemones swirled beneath them and Percy admired the view, still speeding along, just in front of Bella. They rounded the last bend, and everyone spotted the entrance at the same time.
Everyone began speeding up, but that was proved to be a mistake. In the girls' case, if one chain link starts going faster than the others, the rhythm will be disrupted and all falls to chaos. In Percy's case, he didn't know the pool like the back of his hand. He had no clue how deep or far it went; coupled with his unknown, very fast speed, he lost his hold on the water surrounding himself.
Percy crashed into the underwater rock wall at the same time the girls did, from lack of control and vision from the bubbles.
Percy groaned lowly while the girls all screamed, having sustained serious injuries on impact.
The son of Poseidon rubbed his head as he willed the water around him to heal the girls, clutching their damaged appendages.
The girls were awestruck as those damages slowly started healing themselves and the pain disappeared, turning to look at Percy questioningly.
"Did you...?" Cleo couldn't finish her question, but Percy nodded, a grim look on his face.
"That's not our only problem."
The girls grew concerned with that statement. What was wrong? Everyone was heaped now.
"I think we ended in a tie."