Chapter 1
"Do we really have to go?" I whined for the seventh time.
Annabeth rolled her eyes at me. "No we don't have to go, not like I've wanted to visit Drake University since I was a little girl or anything…"
"Perfect!" I leapt to my feet. "Leo, turn her back around, we're going back to Camp Jupiter!" I shouted up to the bridge.
"No, no!" Annabeth came running past me and stormed onto the bridge. I could hear the SMACK! Annabeth gave him from the mess hall. "It was sarcasm, idiot."
As she charged back down the steps, she glared daggers at me as I flashed a quick smile back to her. She raised her hand to smack me too, but then suddenly the ship lurched to the left, and we were both thrown down the floor.
"Leo!" Annabeth shouted. "I told you, Percy was just joking! Why are you turning?"
"I'm not!" Leo's voice carried back down. "Something else is taking control, I swear it's not me! Don't hit me again!"
"If it's not him, then who…?" I started to ask. I could feel our ship being dragged downward, and the rumble it shook the ship with was enough to wake up Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, and Nico.
"What's going on guys?" Piper asked, wiping her eyes clear of the morning grogginess. "I was sleeping you know."
"We know," Annabeth replied. "But Leo's saying that our ship is being pulled by something and we don't know-"
Then suddenly, Frank and Hazel both stumbled out of the bathroom wearing nothing but their undergarments. Their hair was all disheveled and they both look flustered, with red cheeks and wide eyes.
"Uhh…" Frank stuttered. "W-we were j-just, you know, uhh…"
"Nothing!" Hazel quickly cut him off. "We weren't doing anything!" She grabbed Frank's arm and pulled him into her room and promptly shut the door.
The rest of us just looked at each other, looking uncomfortable, and knowing exactly what they did, and it sure as hell wasn't "nothing". But we didn't get the chance to let our imaginations run for long at all before we heard Leo yelp from on the deck above us. Without warning, Leo's half-dressed pajama state tumbled down the stairs and landed near us, followed by a squadron of seven heavily armored soldiers with massive rifles aimed at each of us, seemingly one soldier per demigod. The gunmen wore heavy suits of black fabric, with a futuristic helmet to cover their faces. A mirror plate banded across their eyes from one side of their head to the other, so that when we tried to stare at them, all we saw were our own cowardly, defenseless figures.
Then a girl came walking down the steps after the men, looking no older than 16; she was about 5'5" and had sheened and glossy brown hair. She wore a combat suit similar to the soldiers, but on her shoulders rested two red epaulettes, distinguishing herself from the rest. Everything about her presence unsettled me, probably because she was a little girl amongst these burly guys with guns pointed at us, but the worst part was definitely her eyes; they were beautiful, but cold and calculating, analyzing everything about the setting and situation, gauging every one of us in an instant, who we were, what we could possibly be doing here in her airspace.
Her cold gaze rested on me after scanning the entire room. "Captain Wright."
The man pointing his rifle at me straightened up and saluted respectfully.
"Take them into custody." Her eyes dug a hole straight through me. "I want them interrogated. No one brings an armored warship into Drake's airspace without my permission."
"Right away, Ms. Iparis." Captain Wright saluted again before motioning for his squadron to cuff my friends. We were the Seven of the Great Prophecy, and we had defeated the giants and saved Olympus from total annihilation, but never before had we been so utterly powerless to do something. Captain Wright forced my hands behind my back and he snapped a pair of handcuffs around my wrists, then shoved me forward with his rifle in hand.
"Give me an excuse," the Captain said, prodding me in the back with the barrel of his gun. "It'd be less painful than what Commander Wing has in store for you."