Hello ! Here we are on the second chapter, and I am currently writing this on a bus. To Disneyland. Yup. Disneyland. (The entir choir program at school is having an epic field trip! with no parents!) I had to get to school at 3:30 IN THE MORNING to catch the charter bus all the way to California! ( I live in Nevada, so that's like a four hour drive, BTW) OK, enough about me ( Willow Tree, who does NOT own the PJO & HOO series!) Let's get to the story!
Chapter 2; What a "pleasant" surprise...
I. Am. An. Idiot. Thought Leo. I'm an idiot!
He had done some questionable things in his life, but this? How could he have been stupid enough to fire on New Rome, and destroy their only chance of peace with the Roman camp?
"Annabeth!" Called Percy from below decks. "We need you!"
Now Leo was starting to worry, according to Piper, somebody had thrown a brick at his head "If he didn't make it...
Annabeth must've picked up on his emotions.
"He'll be ok. Just-just try not to blow anything else up. Frank, watch Leo please." She turned to go.
Well, that's fantastic. Annabeth now trusts a Roman she's known for like, 3 minutes, more than me.
Frank and Leo sat in awkward silence for a while. Frank cleared his throat.
"So, uh, your name isn't Sammy?"
"No, my name is Leo. In case you didn't realize yet... What kind of question is that?"
"it's just- nevermind. About firing on the camp... Do you think it could've been Octavian? Like, magically? He didn't want the Greeks and Romans to get along anyway."
"It was me. I don't know how it happened, ok?" Leo was grateful at least one person didn't hate him, and wished that he could pin everything on that stupid augur Octavian, but that would only make matters worse than they already were. He sighed. "Look, I'll go get a damage report from Festus-"
"Festus? who's he? Where is he?"
"Oh! Come on I'll introduce you guys. His name isn't Sammy either, if you were wondering..."
The figure head turned 180 degrees to see yelped and jumped back.
"It's alive!" If Leo hadn't been in such a CRAP mood, he probably would've laughed.
"Uh, yeah. Frank, Festus. Festus, Frank. He used to be a full bronze dragon, but ther was an accident."
"You have a lot of accidents...' Frank noted.
"Well, some of us can't turn in to dragons, so we have to build our own." He arched his eyebrow at Frank. While he'd been half conscious, he was pretty sure he'd seen a dragon land on the ship, and that dragon turned into Frank. "Anyway, I revived him as a figure head so he could be with me on the ship. How're things looking, Festus?"
The dragon made a series of mechanical noises. Over the past few months, he'd learned to interpret his machine language. Other demigods spoke Latin or Greek; He spoke Creak & Squeak.
"Ugh." He groaned. "Could be worse, but the hull is damaged in many places, most oars are knocked out of alignment and need to be fixed right away before we can go full speed again.
We need Celestial bronze, lime-"
"Why do you need limes?"
" Dude, lime. Calcium Carbonate, used in cement and a bunch of other- Ah, nevermind. Point is we can't go far unless we get those. And also Tar."
"AY-zuhl" Creaked Festus.
"What?" Said Leo. "Oh, Hazel. The girl with the curly hair, right?"
Frank chewed his lip.
"She's your girlfriend, isn't she?"
"Uh, well, I wouldn't say-"
"Is she your girlfriend or not?"
"Um.. Yes. She's my girlfriend. Is she okay?"
'She's fine. Festus says she's following us on a horse."
Frank looked relieved. Festus creaked something again.
"Seriously?!" Asked Leo. "You're kidding me!"
"What?" Asked Frank.
"The hull is damaged so badly that we can only manage one landing!" He groaned. "And we won't be avle to get back in the air again until it's fixed. So that means we'll need to land somewhere with all rhe supplies we need."
Frank scratched his head. "Where exactly are we gonna find Celestial bronze? I think they'd be out of stock at Home Depot."
"Festus, scan."
"He can scan for Celetsial bronze?" Asked Frank. "What can't he do?"
You should've seen him when he was a full bronze dragon, Thought Leo. Then he mentally slapped himself for thinking of that. He knew it would cause him too much pain to think of how Festus used to be. He peered over the ship's bow. What if the Romans are following us?
The Argo II could move quickly, but he doubted thast the Romans couldn't.
The stairs creaked behind him. It was Annabeth and Percy. His heart did a somersault.
"Is Jason-'
"Resting," Said Annabeth. "He should be fine. Piper's keeping an eye on him."
Percy glared at him. "Annabeth says you did fire the ballista?"
"I-I don't know how it happened, I'm so sorry-"
"Sorry?" he growled.
"Percy. Calm it down." Said Annabeth "What's the-"
The stairs creaked behind them. It was Piper.
"Hey Leo, Jason's gonna be o-'
"Already told him." Interrupted Annabeth. "And you're supposed to be watching him!"
"Oh yeah. Oops." She shrugged it off and turned to go, only to be run into by another person.
Wait, thought Leo. That can't be right. Unless Jason's awake, that's everyone on the ship...
It definetly was not Jason.
Standing before them was a tall and slender person, a woman, wearing a long, black, hooded cloak that covered her face. She carried two long silver ninja swords, that Leo thought made her look like the Wolverine.
"Who is captain of this ship?" The girl had an accent. Maybe British, French, or Australian, or a mix of all three and some other languages sprinkled here and there. Whatever it was, it was pretty, but they wouldn't learn that until later. A typical human voice doesn't sound very pretty when you feel like killing everyone in your immediate vicinity. Leo was still getting over the initial shock of their surprise guest, and didn't realize everyone was pointing towards him until Wolverine chick had both swords at his neck. The other demigods drew their weapons, but didn't attack.
pfft, some friends you guys are..
"Who are you, and why are you keeping me here?"
"WOAH! POINTY THING!" He glanced at Piper who fortunetely got the message. She flicked on the charm speak.
"Hey, you don't need to be hostile-" Wolverine girl had one sword still pointed at Leo, and the other was at Piper's throat.
"Why shouldn't I be? Because 'You're not going to hurt me?'"
"YES! Exactly, we-"
"If harm is not your intention, why do you all have weapons at the ready?" She raised Piper's chin with her sword. "You're a terrible actress, you know." She made a tsk, tsk noise "Not convincing at all.
This just didn't register with Leo's mind, or any of their minds for that matter. Piper had charmspeak, and they all knew first hand how powerful it could be. The only way this new girl wouldn't do what Piper told her to was if she was immune to charmspeak. But that was impossible. Only other people with charmspeak and gods are immune to charmspeak.
"If you really want to convince me, drop your weapons." She gestured to Percy, Annabeth and Frank with the sword she'd been pointing at Leo. "All of you."
Piper dropped Katoptris. (She would've been decapitated otherwise,)
Frank lowered his bow a little, then raised it back up again.
Percy and Annabeth stayed put.
The Wolverine girl removed her swords from Piper's chin and walked leisurely over to Percy and Annabeth. Just before turning her full attention to them, she snapped her head over to look at Frank. From under her hood, Frank saw two glowing purple dots, like eyes, and dropped his bow out of confusion. She snapped her head back over to Percy and Annabeth. She menacingly pointed her swords at either of them.
"You have two options: Follow the other's lead and we can all be happy and get along! Or don't and learn how to live your life without a head. What's it gonna be?"
Percy did nothing. Annabeth didn't waver.
"Option two it is!" She touched both of their necks with the sharp end of her blade, but didn't apply enough pressure to do any damage. "Unless, of course , you want to reconsider?"
Annabeth inhaled sharply and dropped her dagger. Percy stood his ground.
"Drop the sword." She pressed the katana firmer into his skin. "Now." she said through gritted teeth.
He didn't move.
And that's where things got weird.
From the ground where the girl stood, a malicious shade of violet fog started to swirl around her feet, and for only half a second, she was levititating.
Then everything came to an abrupt halt. Her feet hit the ground with a soft thunk. The fog dissipiated as soon as it had appeared., She flicked her wrists and the swords melted onto her arms. Then she ran, without an explanation, down the stairs and back to the room she'd woken up in. And, in the process, leaving 5 very confused demigods.
CLIFFY! Haha i'm so evil...Welp, stay tuned for the next chapter, I guess...
Favorite, follow, and review if you liked it, and if ya didn't tell me how to make it better, this is my first fic.
Love to all my lovely readers,
~Willow-Tree-Silver~