Chapter 6

I Fight the Golden Boy

I did it again. I fell asleep and missed Hercules and the food fight following our passage into the old world. I'm pretty sure I was the most useless member on the ship. Drew and Connor were at least present. All I did was sleep.

I asked Piper and Jason what Hercules was like. Apparently, the dude was younger than me and he was bitter. I could relate.

Later that night, I stayed up on watch since I woke up so late. It was the least I could do. The irritating part was that magical creatures flew on the ship almost every moment. One time, this gigantic, murderous pigeon dive-bombed me for turkey jerky. I hoped that thing flew far away so it wouldn't mess up the deck.

I passed Annabeth and Percy a couple times as I walked around on deck. When I was going up to the watch tower, I heard Percy shout something. After a moment I realized that he was saying stop, but then it was too late. Another ship had crashed straight into our hull.

Festus barbecued a couple soldiers coming on the ship, but it did little good to stop the horde. I drew my sword and ran to the front, and was met with numerous spears. In the light, I could see that these weren't really buff guys, but biped dolphins. It was like out of a sci-fi horror movie.

I looked over to see Annabeth and Percy in a similar situation. Leo had been knocked unconscious and one of the dolphin men was dragging him back to our side of the deck. I got kinda nervous because Leo had sounded the bells and no one was coming. I didn't want to think about what happened.

Just then, a human came on deck. He was dress from head to toe in gold and had a helmet that resembled a Gorgon's face. I tried not to show it, but I was kind of scared. Even Thalia's shield scared me.

He sauntered over to Percy and disarmed him, knocking Riptide into the ocean. I collapsed Backbiter and hid it in my pocket.

"I am Chrysador, plunderer of seas, the very best—"

"I thought Black Beard was the Plunderer of the Seas," Annabeth said.

Chrysador groaned like a child and stamped his foot. "I let Black Beard take the fall for one lousy time, and now everyone thinks he's behind all the missing ships."

He continued to prattle on saying, "I am always behind them. You know the sinking of the Lusitania during World War I? Me. World War II, and all the sunken ships? Me! Of course, the U-Boats got all the credit. Dumb children of Hades."

This guy was a basket case. I wondered what he looked like without the mask.

"Look who I find, Percy Jackson and his sidekick, Annabeth Chase. Even better, I get Luke Castellan too. Gaea will reward me for all three of you."

Annabeth and Percy began to talk to each other, although I couldn't hear what they were saying.

Chrysador cried out, "Yes, Medusa was my mother. Poseidon was my father, and your mother, Annabeth, turned mine into a monster. Two children laid inside her, unable to be born until Perseus cut off her head."

"You and Pegasus," Annabeth said.

I felt like neither of them were trying not to piss this guy off.

"Yes, after Pegasus was born, I was the forgotten child. A winged horse, what an incredible creature," Chrysador mimicked in a sickeningly sweet voice.

This guy sounded like he had a bad case of being the middle child, literally. He wasn't the first child of Poseidon and he wasn't the last, but he was the least known. I also felt bad for Percy. It wasn't bad enough that he was half brothers with this guy. He was half brothers with a winged horse. Then again, Pan was my half brother.

Jason and the rest were brought up by the other dolphins. They were thrown unceremoniously onto coils of rope, at least I hoped that was what it was.

Chrysador said to himself as he waved his sword around like he was drawing numbers, "The goat, I can sell to the Cyclops. All three girls can go to Circe. I have no use for two boys." His sword got dangerously close to Percy's face as he counted. A few times he started again. I could relate to that—well I could relate to the dyslexia.

I looked around. Frank wasn't in the pile of people. He must have gotten away.

When Piper started to scream and kick against her bonds, Percy charged Chrysador. I didn't waste time and drew Backbiter, snapping three spears at once. I sliced off the arm of a dolphin before slicing straight through another dolphin. I felt a little bad since no one wanted to hurt dolphins, but in my defense, these were actually bloodthirsty pirates who raped and plundered, not innocent animals that got hunted on the east coast.

I heard a clunk. Percy had just lost his sword for the second time. I used one dolphin as a spring board and landed in front of Chrysador.

"Ok golden boy, let's see what you got."

At least from what the mask showed, he was pissed off. Chrysador swung, aiming to disarm me, but I parried and jabbed him where there was a chink in his armor. He didn't show any sign of pain, but it must have done something.

I quickly dodged his swipe and moved to slide into his knee, but he jumped back. Gods, he was fast.

"Watch out," Annabeth shouted.

I jumped out of the way of a dolphin's spear. It came down and sent splinters everywhere. Chryador took the opportunity to send my sword flying into the water. He must have really liked making people feel as crappy as him. I stood there dumbly, but only for a moment because Chrysador's hilt slammed down on my head.

I fell straight to the ground and started to black out.

. . .

I heard Leo mutter, "Six million dollars in gold, all for the booze God."

I opened my eyes. I was lying on the deck next to a severed dolphin arm. Gross. I got up and pulled down my shirt before walking over to the side of the ship where everyone was watching Chrysador's ship sink into the ocean.

"What happened?"

"We tricked the dolphins into thinking that Mr. D was on the ship."

I glanced at Chrysador's ship which only had the top of its mast showing.

"So, a tribute of Diet Coke and gold?"

"Yeah," Percy replied.

I said. "I'm more of a Pepsi person, but whatever floats his boat."

"Or sinks it," Leo said in disgust.

"Not all precious metals are good," Hazel warned.

I almost said something about profits always being good, but I thought not to. Being a child of Hermes made me money obsessed and not the most moral person. I learned from enough trouble that money wasn't always worth it. Of course, selling technology to the campers was a stroke of genius. I was proud about the profit I made. Ok, maybe I was a lot like Walter White.

Other than a splitting headache, I was fine and could go about doing normal things. Everyone else seemed to be ok except for Percy who went to his cabin to sleep the fight off.

When I went to check on Coach Hedge, he slammed into me and stood on my stomach. He nearly brained me with his bat, shouting: "Die, goat eater!"

"Whoa Coach, it's me."

He calmed down and got off of me. "Not much better."

"Come on, you love me," I said jokingly.

He only snorted and sat down near the sonar system.

"You and Tanaka aren't doing anything behind my back right?" he asked, almost confiding in me, the only adult on ship. Truth be told, almost everyone else was an adult too. Percy and Annabeth were only a year shy away from being eighteen.

I shook my head. "Not at all, Coach." Honest to the Gods, all I could think about was Thalia, though I didn't know whether I should even let her know that I'm alive, plus she's still like sixteen. The aging was really weird. I didn't know if I should just see her the way I see Annabeth, as a friend.

"Good, I have too many goo-goo-eyed teenagers to look after. Thank the Gods for Leo and Connor."

"Connor did fall in love. Luckily, he didn't bring her back," I said.

"Who was she, blondie?"

Leo came in the room before I had to explain myself.

"Hey guys, Annabeth said we should travel by air."

Leo went to work and the ship started to climb until we were high enough in the sky. I grabbed onto a pole for support. Once the ship was stable, I walked over to the side of the deck and puked. When I came back over, Coach Hedge bleated, "What's the matter kid? Can't handle a simple ride?"

I only glared at him until he started prating on about working out. He said he could bench press more than me. Of course, I had to prove him wrong. The two of us left Leo's side and went to the mess hall. It wasn't exactly bench pressing, it was who can lift the heaviest freaking thing on the ship.

Hazel, Leo, Jason, Drew, Connor, Piper, and Frank came to watch the display. I shouldn't have given in, but I didn't want a goat to beat me.

Coach Hedge picked up a bench and started to do arm curls with it. "Top that, cupcake."

"You're being ridiculous," said Piper.

I ignored her, to my detriment, and picked up the whole table and lifted it over my head doing bicep extensions. After Coach Hedge looked defeated, I put the table down and took a deep breath.

"I could go higher," said Coach Hedge, "but there's nothing else on this ship."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just remember, you'll always be weaker than Frank over there," I said. Maybe that would shut the old goat up. I forget how old he was, like one hundred or something since Grover was almost thirty years old.

"Luke, that was cool," said Frank.

"Yeah, how much did that table weight?" Jason asked.

Coach Hedge said before stalking out, "Probably about two hundred pounds, custard caps."

"Well, I'm going," said Hazel. Piper followed her out.

I groaned and sat down on the bench that Coach had just lifted. I felt like my arms were going to fall off. I'm not even sure where any of that energy came from, but I wanted to beat Coach Hedge that badly.

"Hey, you never told me that you could fight so well," Jason said. "You did better than Percy, and I thought he was good."

I laughed. "I guess, but I still got knocked out."

"Luke, come on. Everyone used to say you were like the best swordsman at camp like ever," Drew said.

"Yeah, I actually taught the class since I was fifteen."

Everyone seemed really impressed about everything I did. I wasn't expecting it, and I kind of liked it. Back before I was with Kronos, I never enjoyed the praise. The one thing that kept my spirits down now was knowing that they'd miss me when I was gone.

"Oh, hey I almost forgot. I'm supposed to be on deck."

I went back upstairs and did my shift. I had to patch the sails twice because of this Hippalectryon that got confused. I always thought they were just actual myths since no God had even seen one. Plus, the head of a horse and the body of a giant rooster was pretty weird to look at.

At twelve o' clock, we started to descend upon Rome. I just hoped the mist would mask enough so that nobody would scream it's Captain Hook's ship. We landed down in this big open park that wasn't too busy today—probably because it was so hot. I had already taken my coat and my shirt off. All I had left was a tee shirt, and I was still sweating.

"So, we should split up," suggested Jason, "Piper and I can stay and watch over the ship."

Annabeth said reluctantly, "And Percy and I'll go together." I felt bad for Annabeth. She looked really sick because the stress had really gotten to her. Since the beginning of the trip, all she did was lock herself away.

"Then the rest of us should go look for Nico," said Leo.

I shook my head. "Drew, Connor, and I aren't part of the prophecy. We can't join in your quest."

"Luke's right, only the seven," confirmed Percy.

"So then Frank and Leo will go with me," Hazel said awkwardly. It was like there was something going on between them. I knew Hazel and Frank were dating, but how Leo fit into this was a mystery.

Drew, Connor, and I waited on the deck for something to happen. At one point Drew and Connor went off for gelato and Starbucks. I asked for one of those cooler things, but I got another San Pellegrino.

Piper and Jason decided to go on a date twenty feet from the boat where Coach Hedge could watch them. I was surprised that he even let them stand within two feet of each other.

Within a short amount of time, Percy came back on the ship. I was afraid he'd say Annabeth got killed or something terrible like that. Instead, he took me below deck.

"Luke, Reyna's arriving at Camp Half-Blood."

"How'd you know?"

"Piper; she can see things in her sword."

I sighed. I thought I'd have some more time than this.

"We might be able to get the statue back in time. Just wait, Luke."

I shook my head. "No, I've got to go. Besides, breaking an oath is worse than death."

"How are you getting back?"

"Teleportation. Hermes get from place to place with it. I figured out how to do it too."

Percy and I stood there silently. I wasn't sure what to say next. I could have just said goodbye or given some advice, but I wasn't prepared.

"Luke, I wanted to know if you think all of this will work. I mean, the Gods have been using us this whole time, and it's never going to stop. I'm starting to lose faith."

I sighed. "Whatever happens happens, but you don't want to live in a world ruled by Titans. Don't let yourself get too caught up in the Gods' problems. It's all politics and war. If you think about things too much, you'll get upset. Goodbye."

With a snap of my fingers, I was back at Camp Half-Blood. Unlike usual, it was quiet and nobody was on the field. I walked down to the lake, since I had some time before I'd die.

Gods, why did I want to tear all of this down? This was my home, and it wasn't a bad one either.

"Luke, what happened?" I turned around. Clarisse was coming up the pathway. "Is anyone dead?"

I shook my head. "No, they're still on their mission. You ready for the Roman invasion?"

Clarisse regained her tough exterior and glared. "Of course, you wuss. I'm going to spear me some Romans."

I laughed wearily. "Kill some for me, will ya?"

Clarisse said concerned again, "Luke, you say that like you're not going to be around for the battle. You're going to be there right?"

I shook my head and brushed the hair out of my eyes. Since the mission, my hair had grown out. It was a little irritating.

I got up and started to walk towards the borders. Clarisse followed close behind.

"What are you doing?" she asked angrily.

"I'm going to turn myself into the Romans so that they won't attack for a while."

Clarisse rushed up and hugged me tightly. "Gods Luke. I'm so sorry."

I couldn't believe it. Clarisse the bruiser was actually hugging me. Out of everyone I knew, she had been the nicest to me since coming back to life.

"Gods, is this the only reason you were brought back to life?" she cried.

"What?"

"The reason you were brought back to life. You asked me why you were alive. This had to be why."

"I guess. Maybe my destiny will always be to die."

Clarisse said, "You're not going alone."

"I wasn't going to stop you, but thanks, Clarisse."

The two of us walked through the forest together. Clarisse put her arm around me since she was so tall.

All the time we walked, I slunk down more. When I tripped on a log, Clarisse helped me back up.

Today, there were no monsters around. I was kind of surprised. A couple monsters might have actually cheered me up because I was so nervous. Fighting with knowledge that you could survive—even by the slimmest of chances—was easier than dying without any chance of surviving.

"Luke," said Clarisse softly.

"Yeah?"

"When you go in there, keep you head up high. Don't let them kill your spirit too. Make them look you in the eye when you die."

I nodded solemnly. "You're right. Thanks for coming with me."

We finally made it near a hill where the Romans were camped out. I hugged Clarisse before heading into the fire alone.