The next morning Carter groaned, fishing listlessly for his cup of coffee on the breakfast table.
"Oh, don't be such a zombie, Carter." Sadie admonished him briskly, walking past him to sit next to Annabeth.
"Cut it out, sis, I didn't sleep well." he moaned. "And stop playing with that thing, Annabeth said it attracts monsters."
Sadie had been casually flipping through her phone's contact list.
"You mean it doesn't for you?" Piper asked, sitting down next to Jason with a big bowl of cereal and orange juice.
"Nope." Carter confirmed, gulping down his coffee.
"Man, that'd be awesome." Leo said through a mouthful of Poptart. "Imagine all the online games we're missing."
"If we can't use internet, why does this thing have WiFi?" Sadie asked bemused, still fiddling with her phone.
"That's my fault." Annabeth said. "I used to have this laptop, but it was magically protected."
Sadie looked around as if just noticing something.
"Annabeth, where is that boyfriend of yours?"
"Guard..."
Suddenly, a siren wailed from the top deck.
"...duty." Annabeth sighed. "Of course."
"And it's always at breakfast too." Piper sighed as she strapped her cornucopia on and they all ran upstairs.
"What's going on?" Carter yelled over the noise.
"Monster attack!" Frank screamed back, puling Sadie away as the largest snake in the world took a bite out of the deck where she was standing.
They stared in shock at the monster. It looked like a green cobra, only the size of the Empire State.
"Gods..." Annabeth murmured, then collecting herself screamed "Percy!"
There was a gush of water off the starboard side and the snake roared in pain as Percy leaped from the water, his sword dripping with blood.
"I'm here." he panted.
"What is that thing?" Jason demanded.
"Dunno!"
"I think I do." Carter muttered as the crew of the Argo moved into formation as though they were used to this kind of thing.
Jason threw a bolt of lightning at it, but after sinking underwater it burst forth again angrier than ever.
Frank turned into a bird and pecked its eyes which Carter and Sadie only vaguely registered as weird. They could do the same after all.
Percy continued to terrorize it under water, while Leo and Piper threw fire and fresh meat.
"Sadie, wait here!" Carter yelled, rushing forward. "I think I know what we're dealing with!"
"What are you going to do?" She called back.
Carter didn't answer. He just ran to the railing, put his hands out and cried in Ancient Egyptian
Return to dust!
A hieroglyph formed over the snake's forehead and it shrieked, slowly shriveling up.
Soon it crumbled into fine powder, still wailing until all of it was disintegrated, piling on the ship and floating in the breeze.
"Phew" Carter wiped his brow. "I'm glad that worked."
"What was it?" Percy asked, capping Riptide, and running his fingers through the monster dust.
"A shabti." Carter said grimly. "Our friend has caught up to us."
A/N: Annabeth did tell them to be ready to fight monsters. I hope you liked the chapter and thank you for reading/reviewing/ect!
