AS THEY RACED over the sea, Annabeth, Cassie and Percy tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. They figured it was important they let somebody know what Luke was doing, and they didn't know who else to trust.
The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight- perfect for an Iris-message but their connection was still poor.
When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show them Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.
Cassie couldn't picture the fatherly activities director at a club, sipping fruity drinks and flirting with half horses, but hey, it was a really strange world.
They told him all about camp, how the had fled and Luke. Cassie ignored the horrible feeling in her stomach at the mention of Luke.
"Percy," Chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for—"
His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him a bunch of voices whooping it up like Comanche warriors.
"What?" Percy yelled.
"Curse my relatives!" Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight.
"Annabeth, you shouldn't have let Percy or Cassie leave camp! But if you do get the Fleece-"
"When," Cassie corrected, "when we get the Fleece."
Annabeth nodded beside her, agreeing, ignoring that the odds weren't in their favour.
"Yeah, baby!" somebody behind Chiron yelled.
"Woohoooo!" The music got cranked up,
subwoofers so loud it made their boat vibrate.
"—Miami," Chiron was yelling. "I'll try to keep watch-
Their misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone.
"Damn," the brunette whispered, "that was some hard parting."
It went silent, but she could notice Percy's and Annabeth's curious stares, because of what Luke had said back in the boat.
Cassie pretend not to notice for a small while, but she couldn't block out her two best friends for long.
"My mother is gone."
Annabeth gasped in surprise. "I'm so sorry Cass-"
"She's not dead." Cassie was looking at the water. "She," she moistened her lips, "she was deemed unfit to raise me."
Percy didn't say much, Cassie didn't blame him, he had always been awkward with peoples feelings. However, he did wrap his arms around her, offering a support Cassie knew she could rely on.
An hour later they spotted land—a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels.
A coast guard cruiser passed on their starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look.
Cassie guessed it wasn't every day they see a yellow lifeboat with no engine going a hundred knots an hour, manned by three kids.
"That's Virginia Beach!" Annabeth said as they approached the shoreline. "Oh my gods, how did the Princess Andromeda travel so far overnight? That's like-"
"Five hundred and thirty nautical miles," Percy said.
The two girls stared at him in shock.
"How did you know that?" Cassie asked. "You're like a pirate of the Caribbean now."
Percy blushed. "I— I'm not sure. I just kind of said it."
Annabeth thought for a moment. "Percy, what's our position?"
"36 degrees, 44 minutes north, 76 degrees, 2 minutes west," Percy said immediately. Then he shook his head. "Whoa. How did I know that?"
"Because of your dad Poseidon," Cassie guessed. "When you're at sea, you have perfect bearings- that is literally so cool. You're like a human water google maps."
Percy processed what she had just said, and deemed it as a compliment.
Tyson tapped Percy's shoulder. "Other boat is coming."
Cassie looked back. The coast guard vessel was definitely on their tail now. Its lights were flashing and it was gaining speed.
"We can't let them catch us," Cassie said. "They'll ask too many questions and time..."
"Percy keep going into Chesapeake Bay," Annabeth said. "I know a place we can hide."
Percy risked loosening the thermos cap a little more, and a fresh burst of wind sent them rocketing.
The coast guard boat fell farther and farther behind. They didn't slow down until the shores of the bay narrowed on either side, and Cassie realized they'd entered the mouth of a river.
"There," Annabeth said. "Past that sandbar."
They veered into a swampy area choked with marsh grass. Percy beached the lifeboat at the foot of a giant cypress.
"Come on," Annabeth said. "It's just down the bank."
"What is?" Percy asked.
Cassie remembered when Anabeth had told her about the half-blood refugees, she, Luke and Thalia had built while in the run. It was pretty cool, like demigod bases.
"Just follow." Cassie grabbed a duffel bag. "And we'd better cover the boat. We don't want to draw attention."
After burying the lifeboat with branches, Tyson, Cassie and Percy followed Annabeth along the shore, their feet sinking in red mud.
A snake slithered past her shoe, Cassie definitely didn't scream, and Percy definitely didn't jump, and Annabeth definitely didn't roll her eyes.
"Not a good place," Tyson said. He swatted the mosquitoes that were forming a buffet line on his arm.
After another few minutes, Annabeth said, "Here."
All Cassie saw was a patch of brambles. Then Annabeth moved aside a woven circle of branches, like a door, and Cass realized she was looking into a camouflaged shelter.
The inside was big enough for four, even with Tyson being the fourth.
There were demigod previsions, too bronze javelin tips, a quiver full of arrows, an extra sword, and a box of ambrosia.
"A half-blood hideout." Percy said. "You made this place?"
"Thalia and I," she said quietly. "And Luke."
Cassie shifted again with the mention of the son of Hermes.
"So ..." Percy said. "You don't think Luke will look for us here?"
The blonde shook her head. "We made a dozen safe houses like this. I doubt Luke even romembers where they are. Or cares."
That seemed backhanded, and Annabeth's hair swirled with a bright green, tipped with flares of orange. Meaning she was disgusted by who she considered a brother, and that she resented him too.
Annabeth threw herself down on the blankets and started going through her duffel bag.
"Um, Tyson?" Percy said. "Would you mind scouting around outside? Like, look for a wilderness convenience store or something?"
"Convenience store?"
"Yeah, for snacks. Powdered donuts or something. Just don't go too far."
"Powdered donuts," Tyson said earnestly. "I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness."
"And cookies," Cassie added, Tyson nodded quickly.
He headed outside and started calling, "Here, snacks!"
Cassie stared at where Tyson had disappeared. "Did you just send him for donuts in the middle of the wilderness?"
Percy scratched the back of his head. "I'm hungry."
She sat beside him. "Yeah don't blame you."
"He let us go too easily," Cassie said. "Something is wrong."
Annabeth nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. What we overheard him say about a gamble, and "they'll take the bait"... I think he was talking about us."
Percy asked, "The Fleece is the bait? Or Grover?"
She studied the edge of her knife. "I don't know. Maybe he wants the Fleece for himself. Maybe he's hoping we'll do the hard work and then he can steal it from us. I just can't believe he would poison the tree."
"What did he mean," Percy asked, "that Thalia would've been on his side?"
"He's wrong."
"You don't sound sure."
Annabeth glared at Percy.
"Percy, you know who you remind me of most? Thalia. You guys are so much alike it's scary.
I mean, either you would've been best friends or you would've strangled each other."
"Let's go with "best friends.'
"Thalia got angry with her dad sometimes. So do you. Would you turn against Olympus because of that?"
Percy stared at the quiver of arrows in the corner. "No."
"Okay, then. Neither would she. Luke's wrong."
Annabeth stuck her knife blade into the dirt.
"So what did Luke mean about Cyclopes?" Percy asked. "He said you of all people"
"I know what he said. He ... he was talking about the real reason Thalia died." Percy waited and Cassie hugged her friend.
Annabeth drew a shaky breath. "You can never trust a Cyclops, Perey. Six years ago, on the night Grover was lead-ing us to Half-Blood Hill"
She was interrupted when the door of the hut creaked open. Tyson crawled in.
"Powdered donuts!" he said proudly, holding up a pastry box.
Anabeth stared at him. "Where did you get that? We're in the middle of the wilderness.
There's nothing around for-"
"Fily feet," Tyson said. "Monster Donut shop just over the hill!"
"This is definitely not good," Cassie muttered.
They were crouching behind a tree, staring at the donut shop in the middle of the woods. It looked brand new, with brightly lit windows, a parking area, and a little road leading off into the forest, but there was nothing else around, and no cars parked in the lot. They could see one employee reading a magazine behind the cash register.
That was it. On the store's marquis, in huge black letters that even Cass could read, it said:
MONSTER DONUT
A cartoon ogre was taking a bite out of the O in MONSTER. The place smelled good, like fresh-baked chocolate donuts.
"This shouldn't be here," Annabeth whispered. "It's wrong."
"What?" Percy asked. "It's a donut shop."
"Shhh!"
"Why are we whispering? Tyson went in and bought a dozen. Nothing happened to him."
"He's a monster."
"Aw, c'mon. Monster Donut doesn't mean monsters! It's a chain. We've got them in New York."
"A chain," Cassie agreed. "And don't you think it's strange that one appeared immediately after you told Tyson to get donuts? Right here in the middle of the woods?"
"It could be a nest," Annabeth explained.
Tyson whimpered. He'd plowed through half a dozen donuts from his box and was getting powdered sugar all over his face.
"A nest for what?" Percy asked.
"Haven't you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so fast?" Cassie asked.
"One day there's nothing and then the next day boom, there's a new burger place or a coffee shop or whatever? First a single store, then two, then four exact replicas spreading across the country?"
"Um, no. Never thought about it."
"Percy, some of the chains multiply so fast because all their locations are magically linked to the life force of a monster. Some children of Hermes figured out how to do it back in the 1950s. They breed"
Cassie froze.
"What?" Perct demanded. "They breed what?"
"No- sudden moves," Annabeth said, like her life depended on it. "Very slowly, turn around."
Cassie heard it a scraping noise, like something large dragging its belly through the leaves.
She turned and saw a rhino-size thing moving through the shadows of the trees. It was hissing, its front half writhing in all different directions.
Cass couldn't understand what she was seeing at first. Then she realized the thing had multiple necks at least seven, each topped with a hissing reptilian head. Its skin was leathery, and under each neck it wore a plastic bib that read: I'm A MONSTER DONUT KID!
Cassie unclipped her star clip, but Annabeth locked eyes with her a silent warning. Not yet.
Cassie understood. A lot of monsters have terrible eyesight, it was possible the Hydra might pass them by. But if she uncapped her sword now, the bronze glow would certainly get its attention.
They waited.
The Hydra was only a few feet away. It seemed to be sniffing the ground and the trees like it was hunting for something. Then she noticed that two of the heads were ripping apart a piece of yellow canvas-one of their duffel bags. The thing had already been to their campsite. It was following their scent.
Her heart pounded. Each head was diamond-shaped, like a rattlesnake's, but the mouths were lined with jagged rows of sharklike teeth.
Tyson was trembling. He stepped back and accidentally snapped a twig.
Immediately, all seven heads turned toward them and hissed.
"Scatter!" Annabeth yelled. She dove to the right.
Cassie rolled to the left with Percy. One of the Hydra heads spat an are of green liquid that shot past her shoulder and splashed against an elm. The trunk smoked and began to disintegrate. The whole tree toppled straight toward Tyson, who still hadn't moved, petrified by the monster that was now right in front of him.
"Tyson!" Percy tackled him with all his might, knocking him aside just as the Hydra lunged and the tree crashed on top of two of its heads.
The Hydra stumbled backward, yanking its heads free then wailing in outrage at the fallen tree. All seven heads shot acid, and the elm melted into a steaming pool of muck.
"Move!" Cassie told Tyson while uncapping her sword.
Percy ran to one side and uncapped Riptide, hoping to draw the monster's attention.
It worked.
The sight of celestial bronze is hateful to most monsters. As soon as his glowing blade appeared, the Hydra whipped toward it with all its heads, hissing and baring its teeth.
The good news: Tyson was momentarily out of danger. The bad news: Percy was about to be melted into a puddle of goo.
One of the heads snapped at him experimentally.
Without thinking, Percy swung my sword, Cassie screamed internally.
"No!" Annabeth yelled.
Too late. Percy sliced the Hydra's head clean off. It rolled away into the grass, leaving a flailing stump, which immediately stopped bleeding and began to swell like a balloon.
In a matter of seconds the wounded neck split into two necks, each of which grew a full-size head. Now Cassie was look-ing at an eight-headed Hydra.
"Percy!" Annabeth scolded. "You just opened another Monster Donut shop somewhere!"
Cassie dodged acid. "At least someone is getting donuts right now!"
Percy dodged a spray of acid. "How do we kill it?"
"Fire!" Annabeth said. "We have to have fire!"
As soon as she said that, Cassie remembered the story. The Hydra's heads would only stop multiplying if they burned the stumps before they regrew. That's what Heracles had done, anyway. But they had no fire.
Percy backed up toward river. The Hydra followed.
Cassie moved in on Percy's right and tried to distract one of the heads with her sword, parrying its teeth with her knife, but another head swung sideways like a club and knocked her into the muck.
Cassie felt hot, burning pain on her back. She groaned, her head messy and her sword not on her hand anymore.
Percy felt something very weird in his chest, something he didn't like at all.
"No hitting my friends!" Tyson charged in, putting himself between the Hydra and Cassie.
As Cassie got to her feet, Tyson started smashing at the monster heads with his fists so fast it reminded her of the whack-a-mole game at the arcade. But even Tyson couldn't fend off the Hydra forever.
They kept inching backward, dodging acid splashes and deflecting snapping heads without cutting them off, but Cassie knew we were only postponing their deaths.l-no! Positive thinking only. Cassie breathed in and tried to think positive.
Then Cassie heard a strange sound a chug-chug-chug that at first she thought was her heartbeat. It was so powerful it made the riverbank shake.
"What's that noise?" Annabeth shouted, keeping her eyes on the Hydra.
"Steam engine," Tyson said.
"What?" Percy ducked as the Hydra spat acid over my head.
Then from the river behind them, a familiar female voice shouted: "There! Prepare the thirty-two-pounder!"
Cassie didn't dare look away from the Hydra, but if that was who she thought it was behind them, she was sure she was going to kiss Clarisse LaRue.
A gravelly male voice said, "They're too close, m'lady!"
"Damn the heroes!" the girl said. "Full steam ahead!"
"Aye, m'lady."
"Fire at will, Captain!"
Cassie understood what was happening a split second before it did. She yelled.
"Hit the dirt!" and they dove for the ground as an earth-shattering BOOM echoed from the river. There was a flash of light, a column of smoke, and the Hydra exploded right in front of them, showering the four with nasty green slime that vaporized as soon as it hit, the way monster guts tend to do.
"Gross!" screamed Annabeth.
Cassie took away her jumper covered in guts. "Ew!"
"Steamship!" yelled Tyson.
Percy stood, coughing from the cloud of gunpowder smoke that was rolling across the banks.
Chugging toward them down the river was the strangest ship she's ever seen.
It rode low in the water like a submarine, its deck plated with iron. In the middle was a trapezoid-shaped casemate with slats on each side for cannons.
A flag waved from the top a wild boar and spear on a bloodred field. Lining the deck were zombies in gray uniforms— dead soldiers with shimmering faces that only partially covered their skulls, like the ghouls they'd seen in the Underworld guarding Hades's palace.
The ship was an ironclad. A Civil War battle cruiser. She could just make out the name along the prow in moss-covered letters: CSS Birmingham.
And standing next to the smoking cannon that had almost killed them, wearing full Greek battle armor, was Clarisse.
"Losers," she sneered. "But I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard."
Cassie smiled and ran to hug Clarisse. The older girl smiled softly, an odd occurrence for the daughter or war to smile.
Clarisse hugged Cassie back.
Percy looked at the two, for some unknown reason he hated Clarisse LaRue even more.
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-yeah, percy was jelly
-i rlly like this chapter
flo<3