As if my day couldn't get any worse, Mother of Monsters had to attack my ship. God damn it, why couldn't she wait until after I'd finished my breakfast. Not that my breakfast was significant… Just some fruit and water and some other crap I'd found onboard. But no, the Mother had to disturb me while I was enjoying my most bountiful meal.

"Get off my ship!" I'm screaming now, brandishing my celestial bronze sword as if it's caught fire. The Mother shrieks in reply, its roar horribly magnified to crush my crew's eardrums. I see a few of my men stumble beside me, and I roar in outrage back at the Mother.

Her huge maroon tentacles are crushing my ship, each suction cup ripping away boards and ropes as they release. My boots come in contact with the hard wooden deck as she thumps the boat again, and I stumble. Seeing my weakness, the Mother's beady black eyes focus on me and she opens her frothed, beaked mouth. Three purple tongues shoot out and wrap themselves around my legs. I shriek as she lifts me up into the air, her tentacles writhing and smacking into masts.

"Screw you!" I spit as I'm lifted in front of her face. I'm dangling upside-down now, and I can feel the blood rushing to my head. The Mother roars again, foam splattering my frock. I gasp in outrage and brandish my sword again. "How the Hades am I expected to clean this? We don't have an abundance of fresh water onboard, ya dingus!" With an expert swipe, I slice through all three tongues as if they're made of butter. I'm instantly squirted with black monster blood, and I scowl as wind whistles in my ears. My last clean shirt. I glance below, instantly remembering my much bigger problems. My ship is rushing towards me in a blur, and the Mother shrieks in agony beside me. Crap.

"Percy!" I cry out, and a figure tears away from the mass of my crew battling one of the Mother's tentacles. I hear him cussing in lengths below me, and then his voice calling out for more people. A few more figures break from the group as I grow startlingly close to the ship. God damn, I was lifted high. Just as my eyes are beginning to water and the figures join Percy, I slam into the mass of bodies like a cannonball, barely scraping the deck. Percy and the other members of the crew rocket backwards with my weight, and I lie dazed on the deck for a few moments before springing up again.

"Captain, are you alright?" asks one, straightening and pulling out his sword with one dark arm. It's Sir Charles.

"I'm just peachy, Charles," I assure him, my rusty British accent clicking on the roof of my mouth. "Let's just kill this bitch." I roar and charge to the front of my ship. Percy follows with Charles and the others. As soon as I grow nearer to the Mother, I break off into a sprint, lifting off of the deck with the help of a few barrels. The Mother is too busy with Percy to notice me as I slam into the soft flesh of her arm.

"Will!" I screech, and he turns to me with his crossbow and pack. "Throw them!" He nods, his curly blond hair glinting in the sun. He hoists the pack over, and I grab it, running up the length of the Mother's arm. My boots slide on the slippery surface of her skin, but I sling the pack on my back and fasten the crossbow to my arm to grab handholds. I climb up to her gnashing head, her beaked mouth flapping with foam as she roars again at Percy. In one swift motion, I throw myself onto her face, arm the crossbow in midair, and slam down onto a curve where her nose should be, shooting right into her right eye. The Mother screams in agony, releasing some of her tentacles from my ship. She reels backward slightly, and I'm thrown off balance, slipping on my perch. I arm my crossbow quickly just as a tentacle comes up to whack me over. I fall, terrified for about half a millisecond, before my boot buckle catches on the edge of her beak. She squawks in my face, nearly making me deaf, and suddenly freezes. I grab onto her mouth and hoist myself up as she suddenly goes completely insane.

All of her tentacles let go of my ship, which rocks dangerously back and forth, the crew helplessly being thrown across the deck. Her beak opens and closes at lightning speed, aching to catch my feet of some portion of my body. Not today, you stupid freak. I raise one arm to fire the crossbow, and right as I pull the trigger, the Mother's beak catches my left hand. I scream in agony along with the Mother as she's blinded. Her tentacles wave in a fury high in the air, and I slip, too stunned to react. The Mother screeches one last time before disappearing in a thrashing mess below the bubbling crystal surface of the sea. I can hear muffled shouts below me, and I glance at my hand. It's still intact. That's good, right? My iron-lined gloves must have protected it. Just before I hit the deck, I remember my crossbow and fling it out of the way before I can stab any one of my crew mates. I'm enveloped by much more people this time… But it's too many. My hand is grabbed by a few people, and I feel my back arching, my throat ripped open by a scream.

"She's hurt!" a voice garbles as I slip in and out of consciousness. The last thing I see before I black out is Percy's face.

…

…

Brown. Purple. Velvet. Not dead. Not dead is good. My vision is blurred. Why can't I focus?

"Shhh," a voice coos, and my forehead is enveloped in the comforting fabric of a cool cloth. "You're hurt. It's not too bad." I raise my head and groan. I'm sore everywhere.

"C-Calypso?" I stammer, my vision tinged with blurriness. I focus on a figure in a simple white cotton garment grinding some powder with a mortar and pestle. She tips the contents of a blue glass vial into the mortar and stirs the mixture with the pestle. Content with the results, she carries it to a chair next to me.

"You need to rest. This may hurt a little." I glance down at my hand, which looks like it has recently stopped bleeding. A few of my fingers look crooked and are purple and swollen. My wrist seems a little fatter as well. A large cut runs across the back of my hand, white with cleaning fluid. Calypso spreads her mixture over my entire hand, and a spark of pain ignites at my fingertips. It spreads up my arm.

"Calypso-o-o!" I yelp through clenched teeth, but she disregards my protesting. She wraps a bandage around the length of my arm, her caramel-colored hair brushing the homemade poultice.

"Oh, bother," she sighs, brushing her messy ponytail behind her shoulder. "I just washed my hair!" The pain slowly resides as she places a hand on my forearm, closing her eyes. I roll my own. Why had I hired such a dramatic healer?

Calypso chants a few lines in Latin, and her eyes roll up into her head. I try not to get too freaked out, but I avert my eyes to stop my brain from screaming that the sight is very wrong. As she finishes her spell, she takes her hand away and smiles down at me.

"Bloody Hades, Calypso, you're one freaky healer." Calypso just giggles lightly and flits off, and I sight, slamming my head back down onto my mountain of white pillows. A small burst of warm Mediterranean air welcomes me as she closes the door to my chamber behind her. It tickles my hair and smells of flowers and salt, which is a different scent than the one I'm used to. Although different, it seems all too familiar… I'm up in a flash, swinging my legs over the side of my bed. I don't bother to pull on my boots, which are kicked aside in a dark corner. I hurry to fling open my chamber door, and I duck to enter the deck. I am greeted by the sun, which nearly blinds me, and my wind charms, which smack me in the head. I slap them aside, cradling my injured hand to my chest. I scuttle up to the front of the ship.

"What's going on here?" I demand, turning to Percy. He furrows his brow. "Don't act stupid with me, Jackson! I know we're headed for land— I can smell Rome from miles away." Percy's hands jerk on the wheel, and he sighs in defeat.

"We're low on supplies and water… And I've gotten word that the king is sending out fleets to capture the pirates around Rome… Where we were headed anyways."

"Then go the other direction! We'll land in another part of Europe and get supplies there!"

"No use. The king has stationed his men as far as the edge of Europe, as far as I know. By going straight to the heart of the situation, we may be able to find out what's going on, and at the same time avoid the fleets. They won't expect pirates to come straight to the king if they know what's good for them."

"Essentially a good idea, but how will we go in unsuspected?" I ask Percy, who raises a finger to him chin. "I mean, what in Hades would people think once they see this… this looming pirate ship in the harbor of the kingdom! Someone's bound to alert the king once they spot a stinkin' ship full of pirates!" Percy winces, and I sigh, resting my hand on the wheel.

"We can send smaller boats in. We still have the load from our last raid— the one with the Princess of Betlam." I roll my eyes.

"I hated her so," I tell him, but I turn on my heels and storm back to my cabin. "Make sure you hide my ship safely!" I call over my shoulder, running my hand adoringly over one of my ship's beams. Percy shouts back something in reply, garbled by the wind. I whack away the wind chimes as I shut the door to my cabin behind me.

Once inside, I stare out my window, which is sprayed with half-dried foam from the Mother. A bit of land glints in the distance— we were most likely close to Rome by now. I'm still wary of the fleets out around the Mediterranean. I don't trust the king. I glance down at my hand, which has ceased throbbing, and I spin around to take in the sight of my lavish wardrobe. Most of my frocks are dirtied or ripped, thrown below deck for the washers to clean and sew. I ruffle through some of the outfits until I find the velvety material of the Princess of Betlam's gown. Gods, I had hated her. She did nothing but whine and wail and hit on Will Solace. I ended up dumping her somewhere in France after looting her ship. It was no use to keep her or any of her crew members.

I drop my legs into the skirt of the dress, pulling it up around my waist and torso. The laces loop around the back, and, because of the lack of the use of one of my hands, I leave them where they are. I stare at my reflection in the grimy mirror hammered into the inside of my wardrobe. A leanly muscular, tanned, stern-set young woman glares back, her choppy hair tucked up inside of a floppy brown hat. I don't spend too long looking at my face. It doesn't matter if I look good or not. I just need a disguise to get inside of the city. Gathering the fabric of the dress roughly with my good hand, I stumble to a porthole in my cabin wall.

"Annabeth!" I call, and footsteps patter quickly, drawing nearer to my chamber door. It swings open, and a pretty, hard-faced blond girl steps inside, shutting the door behind her. Her face melts into a familiar smile, and she straightens her dirty smock and plain brown slacks.

"Piper!" she exclaims, rushing to lace up the back of my dress. "You look absolutely divine!" I hush her by raising my good hand, and she pauses in the lacing. "Oh, my apologies, Scarlet." I can't help but smile a little. "Do you think I can get a badass name like Scarlet Farer sometime?" Annabeth eagerly reaches to lift up my hat, but I swat her hands away.

"Leave the hat on. I will not have my crew ridicule me for my outfit." Annabeth smiles.

"Always so stoic. Maybe I'll have to slay a drakon single-handed like you did to ever get some heroine title." She's by the door in a flash.

"My friend, you are, after all, the master gunner," I tell her reassuringly, straightening up in my new garments. "You're also extremely bright. And that's pretty badass as it is." Annabeth grins, turns, and is gone as suddenly as she appeared. I sigh and sink down onto my bed, finding it suddenly very hard to breathe in my getup. The humid Mediterranean air isn't helping, and I'm breaking out into beads of sweat. I finally take off my huge hat in succumb to the heat, which envelopes my entire cabin. I feel my hair cascading down my back and over my shoulders in choppy strands and beaded, braided portions. I cut my own hair, of course, and I'm not very good at it.

The door swings open, and I grapple for my hat, shoving it onto my head. It's Percy, half a smile lighting up his dirtied face, his loose white smock hanging over one shoulder.

"We're here."

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think!