Cressida ended up standing in a fountain with Percy, Frank and Hazel as he used water to repel the angry Romans with blasts of water. His toga was in tatters as Cressida scared them back with bursts of fire, the Romans not knowing that her fire was harmless.
Piper and Jason were fighting together somewhere near the rope ladder, the orange t-shirt Jason wore not doing any wonders for his credibility, when they heard Annabeth call out from somewhere as another explosion rocked the forum.
This time the flash of light was directly overhead. One of the Roman catapults had fired, and the Argo II groaned and tilted sideways, flames bubbling over its bronze-plated hull.
Cressida had also been able to grow a vine that was knocking Romans away as Annabeth ran towards them.
"Annie!" Cressida called as she spotted her. "What-"
"I don't know!" she replied.
"I'll tell you what!" cried a voice from above. Octavian had reached the bottom of the ladder. "The Greeks have fired on us! Your boy Leo has trained his weapons on Rome!"
"LIAR!" Cressida raged, her eyes aflame.
"You're lying," Annabeth said. "Leo would never-"
"I was just there!" Octavian shrieked. "I saw it with my own eyes!"
The Argo II returned fire. Legionnaires in the field scattered as one of their catapults was blasted to splinters.
"You see?" Octavian screamed. "Romans, kill the invaders!"
While Annabeth growled in frustration, Cressida decided that she didn't like Octavian as she sent her grapevine after him, yanking him off the ladder and dropping him into the Little Tiber.
"We have to leave. Now!" Annabeth urged.
Percy nodded. "Hazel, Frank, you've got to make a choice. Are you coming?"
Hazel looked terrified, but she donned her cavalry helmet. "Of course, we are. But you'll never make it to the ship unless we buy you some time."
"How?" Annabeth asked.
Hazel whistled. Instantly a blur of beige shot across the forum. A majestic horse materialized next to the fountain. He reared, whinnying and scattering the mob. Hazel climbed on his back like she'd been born to ride. Strapped to the horse's saddle was a Roman cavalry sword. Hazel unsheathed her golden blade. "Send me an Iris message when you're safely away, and we'll rendezvous," she said. "Arion, ride!" The horse zipped through the crowd with incredible speed, pushing back Romans and causing mass panic.
"Oh, Fish Face, I like your taste in friends," Cressida remarked as they jumped from the fountain, a trail of water following them as Percy kept it hovering in the air and they tried heading towards the ladder.
"Of course, you do," he replied. "Look how well it turned out for you."
"Gods of Olympus! Can you flirt later when we're not being attacked by a camp of angry Romans?!" Annabeth scolded as she ducked under Roman's arm before swiping his legs out from under him.
Neither replied as they heard Jason shouting from halfway across the forum.
"Romans!" he cried. "Please!" He and Piper were being pelted with plates and stones. Jason tried to shield Piper, but a brick caught him above the eye. He crumpled, and the crowd surged forward.
"Get back!" Piper screamed. Her charmspeak rolled over the mob, making them hesitate, but it wouldn't last forever. A column of purple fire grew in front of Piper and Jason, the Romans backing off even more as Cressida stretched out her hand to buy them time, but they couldn't possibly get there in time to help.
"Frank," Percy said, "it's up to you. Can you help them?"
The girls didn't understand at first as the burly boy swallowed nervously.
"Oh, gods," he murmured. "Okay, sure. Just get up the ropes. Now."
Annabeth got there first as she began climbing, Percy grabbing Cressida by the hips as he gave her a boost up before following after her.
They began to climb as armed legionnaires flooded into the forum. Arrows whistled past their heads and then an explosion almost knocked them off the ladder. Halfway up, they heard a roar below and glanced down.
Romans screamed and scattered as a full-sized dragon charged through the forum—a beast even scarier than the bronze dragon figurehead on the Argo II. It had rough grey skin like a Komodo lizard and leathery bat wings. Arrows and rocks bounced harmlessly off its hide as it lumbered toward Piper and Jason, grabbed them with its front claws, and vaulted into the air.
"Is that...?" Annabeth couldn't even put the thought into words.
"Frank," Percy confirmed, a few feet above her. "He has a few special talents."
"Understatement," Annabeth muttered. "Keep climbing!"
"Yeah, I definitely like your friends, Captain Nemo."
"Keep moving, Wine Vine," he urged as they scampered past a row of broken aerial oars and onto the deck.
The rigging was on fire. The foresail was ripped down the middle, and the ship listed badly to starboard. There was no sign of Coach Hedge, but Leo stood amidships, calmly reloading the ballista.
Annabeth's gut twisted with horror. "Leo!" she screamed. "What are you doing?"
"Destroy them..." He faced Annabeth. His eyes were glazed. His movements were like a robot's. "Destroy them all."
Cressida let her hands combust as she was about to put him to sleep, but Percy tackled him before she could.
"Idiot!" she snapped at him as Leo's head hit the deck hard, and his eyes rolled up so that only the whites showed.
The grey dragon soared into view. It circled the ship once and landed at the bow, depositing Jason and Piper, who both collapsed.
"Go!" Percy yelled. "Get us out of here!"
It took Annabeth a second before she realised that he was talking to her, and she ran for the helm. And she cursed Leo for making them so complicated.
So, while Cressida put out the fires by turning them into her own, Annabeth grabbed the aviation throttle and yanked it straight back. The ship groaned. The bow tilted up at a horrifying angle. The mooring lines snapped, and the Argo II shot into the clouds.
******************************************************************
As much as Annabeth would've loved to have Cressida up on deck to dig through Leo's mind and find out what the hell happened, Jason was still unconscious and that took precedence.
Jason was lying on his bed as Cressida sat next to him, his forehead wound cleaned and bandaged as she held his hand in hers.
"You might want to step back a bit," Percy advised as he knew that if Piper stayed as close as she was to Jason, Cressida would end up seeing into her mind as well and that would just tire her out. Piper seemed confused as Cressida's hands glowed, and her eyes combusted with purple fire. Her heart was in her throat the few seconds they stayed like that before Cressida let go of Jason and her fire died, Percy instantly at her side which made her smile.
"I'm fine," she promised but she still let him take her hand and help her off the bed.
"Is he ok?" Piper asked worriedly and Cressida nodded.
"I'd still check with Annabeth, maybe she can spot something I missed, but asides from the concussion, he's fine. No trace of amnesia or any other brain damage in sight."
Piper seemed to deflate with relief as Percy poked his head out of the door and yelled up the stairs.
"Annabeth! We need you!"
It took a few seconds before the girl heeded their call and came downstairs. Annabeth checked his wound and his eyes, confirming that he was concussed but other than that, he was fine. Piper stayed downstairs with Jason as the trio headed back up on deck, Annabeth explaining everything that Leo told them.
"Is Jason-?"
Cressida gave Leo a small smile. "He's fine. Sleeping. Piper's keeping an eye on him."
Percy gave him a hard look. "Annabeth says you did fire the ballista?"
"Man, I—I don't understand how it happened. I'm so sorry—"
"Sorry?" Percy growled.
"Alright," Cressida interrupted as she put her hand on her boyfriend's chest. "I get that you care about the Romans, but you need to calm down."
Percy looked down at the three-inch difference between their height as he met her eyes and his anger seemed to dim a little.
"Cress is right," Annabeth said. "We'll figure it out later. Right now, we have to regroup and make a plan. What's the situation with the ship?"
Leo's legs were like jelly at the look Percy gave him, but he felt a little better when Cressida realised what was making him so nervous and she elbowed Percy's ribs to get him to knock it off. But the whole smiley and in-love act that they had on before wasn't there when Percy looked at her this time. There seemed to be a bit of tension between them before Leo began telling Annabeth about the damage and the supplies they needed. He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.
"Perfect," Leo sighed with relief.
"What's perfect?" Annabeth said. "I could use some perfect about now."
Leo managed a smile. "Everything we need in one place. Frank, why don't you turn into a bird or something? Fly down and tell your girlfriend to meet us at the Great Salt Lake in Utah."