Heroes of Olympus

The mark of Athena

Annabeth

Annabeth Chase's goal was simple. To dock an out of control flying boat without hurting anyone, or anything. Could she do that? No, was her answer. Things started to go bad when the ,make-shift brake came off.

"Leo!" She shouted, as their almost-calm journey turned out of control.

"Ok, ok I'll fix it, but I can't do that while-" he started, but the Argo II shook, and he tumbled into a huge wooden crate, full of Celestial bronze swords. The swords were in the control room for self defence, in case they got attacked. Just before they had left their brake had broken, so the Hephaestus cabin had had to make own in just one hour.

"Jason? Piper?" Annabeth needed help, but she couldn't leave the controls, especially as they were out of control and Leo was only half conscious - at best. "Leo, are-,"the ship groaned, the winds bashing it side to side, as though the Argo II was answering for him, shaking its head.

"Looks like I'm on my own, then," Annabeth muttered to herself. She'd already broken the brakes, and it was - sort of - her fault Leo had fallen. Nearly a year earlier, in the Titan war, she had flown a helicopter. Here was a flying ship, handmade by demigods in six months. What was the difference?

Now, what would a worthy child of Athena do? She smiled as she remembered all of the silly come backs her boyfriend Percy Jackson had tried to come up with. She had always been calling him Seaweed Brain, because even though he was quite smart, sometimes he acted so dumb.

She shook her head. She had to focus on her task. Being ADHD, boring things would seem to last forever, but if she was having fun, or day dreaming, time would pass really quickly.

She gazed at the controls that lay in front of her. What lever to pull first? What button do push first? She had just ten minutes at maximum to answer these impossible questions before they crashed.

One of the blue levers had a label that said something that looked like this; rfo ynreegmecs nlyo. A mortal would look at it and think it said something else, which it did, but being dyslexic was another mark of being a demigod. Annabeth loved reading, so sometimes it really sucked.

She hesitated, then pulled it. She had no clue what it said, but she hoped it would help. Knowing her luck, it would probably make a hatch open with spiders or something. She was a child of Athena, so she, like at children of Athena, had major arachnophobia. Instead, the dragon head, Festus, started to breath smoke, and his eyes glowed red.

That can't be good, Annabeth though. Then - thanks to her battle reflexes - out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Leo was coming round. He sat up, leaning against a wall, and groaned.

"Why are there sirens making a whole lot of noise?" he murmured.

Annabeth hadn't noticed it at first, but know she realized that Leo was right; sirens were blaring out noise, all around the ship.

"It's a distress call! The lever I pulled-" she finished there, as Leo's face was as white as a sheet.

"Annabeth, please don't tell me you pulled the blue lever," he whispered. "Once you hit it the ship explodes exactly ten minutes late-" he cut off as the door of the control room burst open. Jason and Piper marched in, both in full battle armour.

"Are you okay? We heard the alarms and came straight here," Jason explained, as Piper handed Leo pieces of armour to put on. Annabeth filled him in, and when she was explaining how Festus had breathed smoke, Leo's eyes lit up. In December, Jason, Piper and Leo had rebuilt Festus and gone on a quest to save Hera. Festus had broken down, and Hephaestus had taken him back to camp. They had sculpted his head on the Argo II, as a picture Leo had drawn when he was five, which was nearly exactly the same as a century old drawing of it.

"Since when did the Argo II have a distress mode?" Leo frowned. "I knew it had a blow-up-if-you-pulled-the-blue-lever-mode, but not distress mode."

"I don't know, and if you're both right about the blue lever, then we better land - fast," Piper cried.

Heroes were grabbing only the best weapons from the wooden crates, and were carrying all of their supplies; in case they needed to run or jump for it.

"Okay, how do you fly this thing?" Piper screamed, as Leo and Annabeth finished pulling on battle armour.

"I don't know, ask Leo, he's the expert. I'm going to check the other rooms, make sure there's no items or people in there." Annabeth picked up her silver Daedalus laptop, with the glowing blue delta, and took off down the halls.

"Uh, he-llo? Bit of help driving a mega boat-plane here?" Annabeth heard Piper say. She smiled. Today was the day - if she survived - after eight months she would see Percy again! But, luck never lasted long for demigods, especially when the next Great Prophecy had begun. Connor and Travis Stoll ran up, nearly making her drop her laptop.

"You might wanna see this," Connor said, sounding worried.

Both of them smelt like smoke, and she didn't really want to find out why, but she replied "Go on then, what's happened?"

"Well, umm-" he started.

"Urgh! Just say it! The galley's on fire. Any ideas?" Travis interrupted, looking accusingly at someone behind Annabeth.

"Get everyone away from there, and get everything you can from the nearby rooms, and don't leave anyone behind," Annabeth told them.

"What! Even if-"

"Yes! Even if they are super annoying!"

"Ahh!"

She rolled her eyes, then glared. and they promised not to leave anyone behind. Bing! Even though if demigods used technology it was like telling monsters that you were there, a few of them had mobiles, but they only used them in emergencies. And this definitely classed as an emergency. It was from Jason, telling her that they had five minutes before the ship exploded. And her day was about to get a whole lot worse.

"Annabeth! Good, I'm glad its you. Looks we may have a slight problem." At first, she looked around. No one was there. Then, when they voice called to come again, she recognised it, as Clarisse la Rue, daughter of Ares, god of war. She was nice once you got to know her, but before that stage, well, she did some pretty nasty things to new campers, especially Percy. Not long now before she saw him again!

"Annabeth, come on!" Clarisse appeared in the hatchway, and pulled her, not only out of her memory, but physically, onto a little balcony around Festus' head - lookout patrol.

"What's the problem?"

In response, Clarisse pointed to a group of hundred, maybe two hundred people, all staring at the Argo II. Then she realized they all had weapons of gold, and were all wearing purple shirts, just like the one Jason had been wearing when he had woken up on the bus, back in December, with Piper and Leo.

"The other camp,"

Clarisse nodded grimly. "We need to stop Jason from finding out that they look like they wanna' knock us outta' the sky." Annabeth understood this ; if he took one look at the other camp, he would remember exactly who he was, and all of he training. If this camp was for Roman demigods, then he might fight everyone on the ship.

"But," Annabeth said, "If we tell him, then somehow he may be able to stop them attacking us." She knew it was a useless idea, but to her surprise, Clarisse slowly nodded again.

"Maybe. Let's ask Leo and Piper what they think we should do."

"You go. I'll stay here, watching them. I've got my Yankees cap, I'll be fine!" Annabeth insisted.

"But-" Clarisse protested. Annabeth knew that she was secretly glad to be asked to go, but leaving lookout and they attacked (using pegasi) she would be in trouble. As Clarisse trudged off, she wondered what the other camper were like. More military like, and more organised probably. Annabeth pulled her navy blue Yankees baseball cap out of her pocket. A twelfth birthday present from her mom Athena, goddess of Wisdom and Battle Strategy, once put on, the wearer would become invisible. Unlike Hades' Helmet of Darkness, which made the wearer invisible, able to go through walls, and silent, the hat just made you invisible. Everyone can still hear you, but sometimes that's better. She put it on, and leaned against the railing, the wind blowing her curly blond hair. With each second, the ship drew closer and closer to its destination.

Almost as soon as she had sat down, Annabeth heard a petrified scream come from the engine room - Piper? Scrambling down from the lookout balcony, she sprinted towards it, preparing herself for the worst.

Campers were crowding round the doorway, muttering to themselves. "Move, please. Ah. Um. Sorry. Excuse me?" Annabeth somehow managed to manoeuvre the demigods and slipped inside, where she found Leo, who was controlling the ship, but not really paying attention, and Piper, who was crying, looking heartbroken. "What's up-" she faltered. There was one thing missing from the room - Jason.