Finished with their conversation, Percy and Annabeth exited from the shelter. What they saw surprised them. Artie was leaning against a tree as he sipped a large coffee and Tyson was munching a donut with a box sitting on his lap.
"Where did you get all that?" Annabeth asked. "We're in the middle of the wilderness. There's nothing around for - - -"
"Monster Donutshop." Tyson answered. "Fifty feet, just over the hill."
"This is bad." she muttered.
"You mean the shop or the coffee?" asked Artie as sipped and made a face, "Because you can't just add chocolate powder to coffee and call it Brazilian."
Percy laughed at that, but Annabeth had Artie and Tyson lead them to the coffee shop. They did and they all watched the donutshop for a moment to see if there was more than meets the eye about it, other than the owner's strange choice of location.
"This is wrong." Annabeth proclaimed. "This shouldn't be here."
"What?" asked Percy. "Its a donut shop."
"Shhh!"
"Why are we whispering? Tyson went in and bought a dozen. Nothing happened to him."
"He's a monster"
"Monster Doughnut doesn't literally mean monster. What about Artie?"
"Actually . . ." Artie said, sounding slightly embarrassed. "I had the same idea and had Tyson get it for me."
"My point is," continued Percy. "Its just a chain, we got them all over new york."
"And don't you think its strange one appeared after you told Tyson to get donuts?" Annabeth asked. "Right in the middle of the wilderness?"
"She does have a point." Artie admitted. "But are doughnut shops really that evil? I mean, whats the worse they could do? Besides give the wrong change or pour sour milk in your coffee." Artie sipped from the cup again. "I had to say it . . ."
"This is serious!" Annabeth slapped the cup out of Artie hands. She turned to the doughnut shop. "It could be a nest."
"Não sabe como relaxar?"Artie muttered as he wiped the coffee off his shorts.
"A nest for what?" Percy asked.
"Haven't you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so fast?" she asked. "First a single store, then two, then four - - - exact replicas spreading all over the country?"
"Um, no. Never thought about it." Percy answered then turned to Artie.
"I'm with Percy on that." said Artie. "But I can count on my hand the number of time I've eaten at one of them, so I might not be the best to ask."
"Some chains multiply so fast because they're linked to the life force of a monster." Annabeth explained. "Some children of Hermes figured how to do it in the 1950's. They breed - - -" Annabeth froze.
"What?" Percy demanded. "They breed what?"
"No - sudden - moves." Annabeth said, like her life depended on it. "Turn - around - slowly."
All four turned slowly and saw it. It was large and lizard-like, with long necks and seven heads to match. Each head had many rows of razor-sharp teeth, its hands were clawed. It long tail scraped the ground as it walked, making it sound like a giant snake slithering close by. And under each head was bib that read, I'M A MONSTER DONUT KID. Percy's hand slowly drifted to Riptide, but Annabeth flashed a warning with her eyes. Percy understood why she had stopped him. Some monsters had poor eyesight, it was entirely possible the Hydra would pass them by.
"Ok Artie." said Percy. "This is your territory, what should we do?"
No answer.
Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson all turned slowly to see Artie was gone. It was as if he simply vanished. No footprints leading away, no arrows carved into a tree, not even note claiming to be late for a doctor's appoitment. The only thing that proved Artie was even there, were the faint footprints he had left behind in the soft mud where he was standing. Percy was sure Artie wouldn't simply run and hide, leaving them to sort out the hydra problem themselves, and so did Annabeth. Unfortunately, Tyson did not know better.
"Artie?" asked Tyson as he looked around. "Where did he go?"
Annabeth looked scared and she tried to keep still and her voice down, "Tyson! Don't - - -"
Tyson snapped a twig as he stepped forward.
" - - - move" finished Annabeth.
The all of the hydra's head instantly whipped up and hissed as they all caught sight of the trio. Together, all seven wheeled back and snapped forward as they spat towards them.
"Scatter!" shouted Annabeth as she dove to the right.
Percy rolled to the left as green liquid shot past him and splashed the tree. The trunk instantly began to smoke and disintegrate. The whole tree split with a sickening crack. The tree toppled towards Tyson who still hadn't moved, still petrified by the monster in front of him. Percy raced towards Tyson, intending to knock Tyson out of the way of another volley of acid. Percy wasn't sure if he would make it in time, but luckily for him he wouldn't need to.
Thunk . . . Thunk, Thunk, Thunk.
They hydra roared in pain as four arrows sank deep into its hide. Six heads turned their attention to its flanks while one head focused on Tyson and Percy. Percy managed to push Tyson out of the way as the two heads spat more acid, reducing the tree into a steaming pile of goo. Percy heard the rustle of bushes far to his left as an arrow shot out towards the hydra. The arrow melted halfway through the air when it collided the hydra's acid. Percy used the distraction and drew Riptide. A head snapped at him at the sight of the sword. Without thinking, Percy swung the sword and severed the head from the body.
"No!" yelled Annabeth.
Artie's head peaked out from behind a tree. "Pare com isso!"
Percy understood instantly. Where the head had been, a large balloon began to swell. The neck split into two and in matter of seconds, they now faced an eight headed hydra.
"Percy!" Annabeth scolded. "You just opened another Monster doughnut shop somewhere."
Percy dodged a glob of acid. "We're about to die and you're worried about that? How do we kill it?"
"Fire!" she said. "We need fire!"
"I might have something." said Artie as he rolled, ducked, and dodged shots of acid and cursing himself for breaking cover. "But I can't get a clear shot."
Percy backed up to the river and the hydra followed. Annabeth moved in on his left and parried an attack from one of the heads. She succeeded, but another head came at her like club and knocked her into the muck. This greatly angered Tyson and he jumped in between Annabeth and the hydra.
"No hitting my friends!" he shouted.
Tyson began smashing heads with his fists so fast it reminded Percy of a very deadly Whack-a-Mole game. They all continued inching backwards, dodging globs of acid and deflecting heads without cutting them off. Luckily they did an excellent job of fully distracting the hydra. Artie carefully stepped backward as he drew and aimed a special arrow at head. He took a deep breath and fired as he exhaled. A head snatched the arrow from the air and looked at Artie.
Artie winked.
The head cocked to the side just as the arrow began to beep rapidly and exploded. Unlike before, the headless stump stayed a headless stump. Artie dived from behind a tree just as a head spat more acid. He then dived to his right behind some bushes, only to roll behind another tree. He quickly stood and saw that three heads were looking for him still near the first tree while the others were occupied by his friends. He reached for another explosive arrow.
His hand closed around nothing but air and he cursed. "Parvo!"
In his haste, he had forgotten an important fact about his quiver. As far as he knew, his quiver could supply him with almost any kind of arrow; only limited by his ingenuity since it seemed to respond to his thoughts. And while he could fire common arrows for forever and a day, the quiver required time to cool down between each special arrow. Depending on how complicated the arrow, he would have to wait anywhere from seconds to hours. He reached for another arrow and was happy his hand closed around the shaft. He rolled his eyes when he saw it was a plain arrow, not what he needed. Still he nocked the arrow, took aim, and fired.
The hydra exploded with an earth shaking BOOM!
The was a flash of light followed by column of smoke as Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson were showered with green slime. Artie had been spared the slime shower since he was too far. It was moot, since the slime instantly began to vaporize, the way monster remains tended to do.
"Gross!" screamed Annabeth.
"What was that?" coughed Percy trying not to choke on the smoke.
Artie collapsed the bow and walked to his friends, "Não sei, But it was definitely any of us."
"Steamship!" yelled Tyson.
All three looked downriver and saw the strangest ship any of them had seen. It rode low on the water like a submarine with an iron plated deck and sides. Old looking, but smoking, cannons protruded from a casemate on either side. The flag waved in the wind, a speared boar's head on a red field. Several undead soldiers lined the deck, all wearing old looking and torn gray uniforms with faces that only partially covered their skulls. They reminded Percy, Annabeth, and Artie of the ghouls they had seen in the Underworld when they went to retrieve the master bolt.
Only one solider stood out, the one wearing full Greek armor and a foot on the cannon that had killed the hydra.
"Losers." she sneered. "But I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard."
Artie raised an eyebrow, "Big cannon Clarisse, Not compensating for something are we?"
