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Piper XXV

"Piper XXV," Hephaestus read.

Leo stretched his arms.

PIPER HAD A NEW ENTRY in her top-ten list of Times Piper Felt Useless.

Aphrodite, Leo, and the demigods frowned.

Fighting Shrimpzilla with a dagger and a pretty voice? Not so effective. Then the monster had sunk into the deep and disappeared along with three of her friends, and she'd been powerless to help them.

"We couldn't do anything either," Annabeth unhappily reminded.

"Worst fight I ever went through." Percy said bitterly. He didn't think he was ever that helpless and he was surrounded by water! His element!

Afterward, Annabeth, Coach Hedge, and Buford the table rushed around repairing things so that the ship wouldn't sink. Hephaestus grimaced.

His children winced.

Percy, despite being exhausted, searched the ocean for their missing friends.

Annabeth's frown deepened.

Poseidon shot his son a worried look.

"Not that it would do any good against Bythos and Aphros' fish-centaur magic." Percy grumbled under his breath.

Leo played with the buttons on his jacket.

Jason, also exhausted, flew around the rigging like a blond Peter Pan, putting out fires from the second green explosion that had lit up the sky just above the mainmast.

Poor Jay... Thalia thought sympathetically.

Jake and Nyssa winced.

As for Piper, all she could do was stare at her knife Katoptris, trying to locate Leo, Hazel, and Frank. The only images that came to her were ones she didn't want to see:

"The bull-guy in the water and us about to drown?" Percy guessed.

three black SUVs driving north from Charleston, packed with Roman demigods, Reyna sitting at the wheel of the lead car. Giant eagles escorted them from above. Every so often, glowing purple spirits in ghostly chariots appeared out of the countryside and fell in behind them, thundering up I-95 toward New York and Camp Half-Blood.

The gods stiffened.

The demigods shuddered.

Percy's shoulders slumped, he suddenly looked tired.

"Oh gods..." Chris muttered under his breath, he felt his face pale.

"Please tell me someone sent us a warning," Katie said, hands shaking. If the Romans came to Camp without them being prepared....

The demigods grimaced.

"I don't remember the book mentioning that..." Annabeth grabbed her necklace, trying to recall if that ever happened. Between escaping the Romans and fighting Shrimpzilla, she couldn't think of a time anyone had a chance to Iris message the others at Camp.

Piper concentrated harder. She saw the nightmarish images she had seen before: the human headed bull rising from the water, then the dark well-shaped room filling with black water as Jason, Percy, and she struggled to stay afloat.

Thalia, Aphrodite, Cabin Ten, and Poseidon winced.

"As if the last vision wasn't enough," Percy said, brushing his hair back and sighing. The vision didn't faze him as much as the first one had. He was used to going on quests that risked his life, but having the camp being attacked was a nightmare he never wanted to relive.