~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

Shrimpzilla

   Its head surfaced last—the slimy pink face of an enormous catfish with glassy dead eyes, a gaping toothless maw, and a forest of tentacles sprouting from each nostril, making the bushiest nose beard Leo had ever had the displeasure to behold.

   Leo remembered special Friday night dinners he and his mom used to share at a local seafood restaurant in Houston. They would eat shrimp and catfish. The idea now made him want to throw up.

   "Come on, Valdez!" Hedge yelled. "Take the wheel so I can get my baseball bat!"

   "A bat's not going to help," Leo said, but he made his way toward the helm.

   Behind him, the rest of his friends stumbled up the stairs.

   Percy yelled, "What's going— Gah! Shrimpzilla!"

   Frank ran to Hazel's side. She was clutching the rigging, still dazed from her flashback, but she gestured that she was all right. The monster rammed the ship again. The hull groaned. Annabeth, Kiara, Piper, and Jason tumbled to starboard and almost rolled overboard.

   Leo reached the helm. His hands flew across the controls. Over the intercom, Festus clacked and clicked about leaks belowdecks, but the ship didn't seem to be in danger of sinking—at least not yet.

   Leo toggled the oars. They could convert into spears, which should be enough to drive the creature away. Unfortunately, they were jammed. Shrimpzilla must have knocked them out of alignment, and the monster was in spitting distance, which meant that Leo couldn't use the ballistae without setting the Argo II on fire as well.

   "How did it get so close?" Annabeth shouted, pulling herself up on one of the rail shields.

   "I don't know!" Hedge snarled. He looked around for his bat, which had rolled across the quarterdeck.

   "I'm stupid!" Leo scolded himself. "Stupid, stupid! I forgot the sonar!"

   The ship tilted farther to starboard. Either the monster was trying to give them a hug, or it was about to capsize them.

   "Sonar?" Hedge demanded. "Pan's pipes, Valdez! Maybe if you hadn't been staring into Hazel's eyes, holding hands for so long—"

   "What?" Frank yelped.

   "It wasn't like that!" Hazel protested.

   "It doesn't matter!" Piper said. "Jason, can you call some lightning?"

   Jason struggled to his feet. "I—" He only managed to shake his head. Summoning the storm earlier had taken too much out of him. Leo doubted the poor guy could pop a spark plug in the shape he was in.

   "Percy!" Annabeth said. "Can you talk to that thing? Do you know what it is?"

   The son of the sea god shook his head, clearly mystified. "Maybe it's just curious about the ship. Maybe—"

   The monster's tendrils lashed across the deck so fast, Leo didn't even have time to yell, Look out!

   One slammed Percy in the chest and sent him crashing down the steps. Another wrapped around Piper's legs and dragged her, screaming, toward the rail. Dozens more tendrils curled around the masts, encircling the crossbows and ripping down the rigging.

   "Nose-hair attack!" Hedge snatched up his bat and leaped into action; but his hits just bounced harmlessly off the tendrils.

   Kiara summoned her sword. She tried to free Piper, but she was still weak. Her dark blade cut through the tendrils with no problem, but faster than he could sever them, more took their place. Annabeth unsheathed her dagger. She ran through the forest of tentacles, dodging and stabbing at whatever target she could find. Frank pulled out his bow. He fired over the side at the creature's body, lodging arrows in the chinks of its shell; but that only seemed to annoy the monster. It bellowed, and rocked the ship. The mast creaked like it might snap off.