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Percy XXXI

"Percy XXXI," Nyssa read.

Percy impatiently drummed his fingers on his knees.

NOTHING LIKE TOTAL FAILURE to generate great ideas.

"Or desperate, depending the situation." Leo mused.

"Let's hope we're past that point." Percy said.

As Percy stood there, disarmed and outmatched, the plan formed in his head. He was so used to Annabeth providing Greek legend information that he was kind of stunned to actually remember something useful,

"It's not that surprising." Percy dramatically rolled his eyes as Annabeth grinned at him. The demigods snickered.

but he had to act fast. He couldn't let anything happen to his friends. He wasn't going to lose Annabeth—not again.

Percy nodded his head.

Annabeth took his hand in hers and squeezed it.

Chrysaor couldn't be beat. At least not in single combat.

Percy scowled but didn't say anything. He tapped his foot.

With her free hand, Annabeth played with her necklace, deep in thought.

But without his crew...maybe then he could be overwhelmed if enough demigods attacked him at once.

The daughter of Athena perked up.

"That's what I was just thinking," she admitted. "But I don't know how we're going to do that."

Percy had an idea, but he really hoped his future self wouldn't try it.

How to deal with Chrysaor's crew? Percy put the pieces together: the pirates had been turned into dolphin-men millennia ago when they had kidnapped the wrong person. Percy knew that story.

"Everyone at Camp has heard that story at least once," Connor said.

"You know you've been at Camp Half-Blood for a while when you can recount Mr. D's story word per word." Travis said before adding in his Mr. D voice: "And what I did to those pirates is going to look like a 4th of July Celebration compared to what I'm going to do to you, Tom!" As he said the name, Travis made a big show of rolling his eyes.

Hermes glared at the god. Dionysus glared at Travis.

"Can he really be camp director when he's constantly threatening our children's lives?" Athena pointed out.

"It's not like there was ever a time he's gone through with his threats," Zeus said. At least, none that I'm aware of.

Heck, the wrong person in question had threatened to turn him into a dolphin.

Now Poseidon was glaring at the god.

"I never did," Dionysus said with a shrug.

"Only because of my dad," Percy muttered under his breath.

And when Chrysaor said the crew wasn't afraid of anything, one of the dolphins had nervously corrected him. Yes, Chrysaor said. But he's not here.

The demigods gave Percy confused looks.

"Yee-aaah, that's what he said." Travis agreed, not sure where this was going.

"Are you going to make them believe that Dionysus is on the ship?" Annabeth guessed, eyebrows furrowed. She didn't expect Percy to know the answer (this did happen in the future, after all), so she was surprised to see her boyfriend look embarrassed by the question.