All rights belong to Rick Riordan
Chapter 7
I Go Down With Another Ship
(Percy)
I woke up at exactly 7.30 am according to my natural senses. I swiftly got dressed in a camp half blood t-shirt and cargo shorts because frankly it was to hot to be wearing jeans in the Greek summer. Before grabbing my weapons and shield and heading to the mess hall to get some breakfast.
When I arrived the others were already there and seemed to be in discussion with Nico and Annabeth about me so I decided to hang back and find out what the others were thinking. Hedge was sitting on the far table with his neck in a brace wisely deciding to keep his mouth out of the conversation.
'I don't care what you say Nico, Percy has changed now, he used to be cool to hang around with now, he swings mood so fast I'm surprised he doesn't have whiplash' Frank said to the son of Hades.
'Percy has been through a lot and just needs time to get through this, I spoke too him last night he has a lot on his mind at the moment what with the escape from Tartarus to the battle today, he hasn't exactly has had time to himself lately' Nico defended.
'Well we were all in the battle yesterday and you don't see us going nuts and trying to kill someone' Piper stated.
'No what you arrived at was a mopping up operation, we fought the battle. You helped us kill the survivors a few hundred weak monsters left out of three thousand who were fleeing, we had to fight past two titans and Kampé all of which Percy killed. The curse of Achilles does have drawbacks you know it makes us tire and get stressed faster and if there is one thing about Percy, he is definitely stressed' Annabeth said defending me.
'Well we have all done quests and fought battles as well and I beat Krios but you don't see me having his issues' Jason argued and almost making me go in and hit the son of Jupiter but that would have made the problem worse.
'Yeah but you had half the legion helping you at the time' Hazel muttered so he couldn't hear at the far end of the table.
'Percy has fought Atlas and Kronos and Iapetus, and beat Hyperion twice as well as soloed Polybotes who was made to kill his father and not to mention beat Ares and my father and his army. You needed help to kill Enceladus and Hera drove away Porphyrion when he was newly resurrected and you both killed Otis and Ephialtes. He has spent his spent the last four years worrying about one prophecy after another including two great ones. I say he is doing remarkably well if all he had was a little stress' Nico shouted at Jason who kept quiet as the point slowly hit the others, many of them had been a demigod for less than a year or so and were new to the whole experience.
'So I have been in the legion my whole life' Jason finally retorted to which I had enough and stomped in angrily.
'Yeah your right and for how many of those years have your father and Hera been holding your hands, patting you on the back for all your good work, while everyone else had to struggle to even be noticed by their parents, who were forced to stay away because of the ancient laws which your father places on everyone else yet regularly breaks whenever he feels like. How would you like it if as soon as you were told you were a demigod you were immediately threatened by Zeus because he thinks you took his favourite toy, how would the great Jason have reacted to be offered godhood for saving the gods asses.' I snapped at him already knowing the answer.
'I would have taken it of course' he said with pride.
'And that right there is your problem; you don't think anyone but yourself and your ego. What about Piper would you leave her because as you know gods cant stay with mortals and what about your friends who made it possible, would you just smile before leaving them because of the pull of power is too hard to resist for the children of Zeus. That is why Thalia joined the hunters because she didn't want the responsibility of the great prophecy. She knew her flaw and knew it threatened the world. And that is why she is ten times the hero you are. I never wanted any of this, I thought after the last war and peace was made on Olympus that I could sit back and enjoy the rest of my life but instead I get a three week break before your patron kidnaps me and tries to erase my memory before hiding me for 6 months. You woke up the following day with some new friends who helped you, I got hunted half the length of a state by two crazy gorgons. So son of Jupiter do you want to swap places and see how you feel after a while' I asked staring at him before he averted his eyes in defeat.
'I thought so, now let's get out of here and get this done so we can go home' I concluded before leaving without another word and heading to the main deck.
After a while the others joined me and came to apologize for their actions recently and for what they had said. Which I accepted and told them it was not a problem, I had been cranky recently. Finally Jason came over to apologize and held out his hand and asked if I could forgive him and that I was right, he didn't think about others feelings and their past experiences.
Leo made his way up from the control room to tell us to get ready because Festus's sensors had detected a large mass of monsters ahead of us about 5km from Mount Olympus and approaching fast. 'I have good news and bad news' he rushed.
'What's the good news' Annabeth asked.
'Well I managed to jury-rig a winch to lower your mums statue through the bay doors'
'And the bad news' I asked.
'We are about to have hostiles inbound' As if right on cue a large flock of gryphon's and Stymphalian birds appeared ahead and began to close in quickly.
'Everyone battle stations Leo get below deck and take command, Jason start doing whatever you can to keep them off us, Frank turn into something that can fly, everyone else take a ballista and shoot down them gryphons, I'm going for the bow cannon and someone get that goat up here so he can earn his keep. We all rushed to our post I saw without question which surprised me but then again we were in this together. I turned to see Jason and Frank jump over the side only for Jason to float along side but with no sign of Frank after 30 seconds I began to get worried about the son of Mars and looked over the side expecting to see a falling Canadian/Chinese kid instead I was greeted by the sudden up draught of an enormous dragon's wings before he leveled out and flew towards the flock with a mighty roar. I will admit his ability to transform made me jealous just a little, but then I squashed the thought as I was not one to talk about powers, especially recently.
The cannon was similar to the ones found on a modern tank and was mounted under Festus head and normally recessed into the hull between Hedges and Leo's rooms at the front of the ship. Now some may have argued about my use of a cannon but experience had taught me several things. One I was never good with a bow and last I checked a ballista was nothing but a giant bow on a frame and two if my field trip to Saratoga was any experience I could something with a cannon pretty well. The console next to the cannon was complex but everything had been translated into Greek, it seemed it ran on an auto loading principle you simply selected the ammo and fired and it would do the hard work between shots. As I quickly checked the ammo I noticed I had a choice between Greek fire and Grape which I found strange until a explanation appeared describing the properties of the shells. Greek fire seemed to act as normal high explosive but effective against monsters and while we were at sea while grape was an area of effect submunition that created a cone of celestial bronze ball bearings that would shred anything in there path. I could here the sound of bolts beginning to be fired from above and decided I had wasted enough time already before looking in the eyepiece along side and taking aim.
Threw my range finder I noticed several things: the large figure of Frank flying here and there releasing jets of flames creating instant roast death bird and occasionally crushing a gryphon is his jaws or between his large fore claws the other was the smaller of Jason just to the left of my cannon repeatedly summoning lightning that would strike one of the monsters before forking off and taking another dozen or so straight to hades. I noticed a large cluster of gryphons flying in close formation off towards the front starboard side ready to attack the magical oars keeping us in the air. I decided to try out this new toy and sighted on the centre monster before loading a Greek fire shell and firing. The shell thundered out of the barrel and struck the monster I the face killing it instantly before the shell exploded and showered its wing mates with the green flame who seemed to panic when their feathers caught fire and they began to fall out of the air as they stopped flapping. Seeing the immediate threat dealt with I began to search for new targets often to see a gryphon I was targeting struck by a ballista bolt and reduced to dust so I decided to change priorities and ammunition and go for the birds.
Now even with a conical fire weapon with a wide spread you still need to be able to fire in the right direction and the small birds seemed to have no trouble keeping out of my sites or would suddenly veer of when I was about to fire. I turned to see Jason bounce off the hull plates after taking a blow from a dying gryphon which had struck into him after he had stabbed it and I got an idea.
'Jason how are you doing'
'Fine but here are so many of the damn things and they attack from everywhere' he shouted against the wind
'if you can manipulate the current and draw them together, me and the others will be able to hit them all at the same time' I suggested to the blond, he seemed to frown before gaining a wake of understanding and rose before landing on the deck above me behind the figure head.
(Frank)
I had decided to become a dragon because of my mothers words all them years ago about my ancestor back in China and how he been the mightiest of dragons and conquered all the others. Although I had become a drakon a few times recently, I had never tried to become the mythical beast of legends but I knew this was a do or die time for us all and we had to hold nothing back, I thought as I dropped over the side and fell through the air. At first nothing had happened and I began to panic causing me to lose focus and my mind to keep changing between the eastern and western concepts of what a dragon should look like. I continued to descend before I heard my mum's voice in my mind calming me with four simple words.
'You can be anything' she said and I gained sudden clarity of thought and I could feel my body transform and grow far larger until I was an enormous four legged western dragon but with the colors of a Chinese dragon resulting in my scales shining in the morning sun and I realized I had to pull up soon or risk hitting the ground. I pumped my massive wings twice which stopped my fall and brought me level before I continued to flap and begin to take a sharp ascent towards the bow of the ship swiftly soaring past and if I seen clearly almost knocking Percy over with the force of my passing before I veered of towards the monster flock.
As I fought the enemy I realized they were unable to hurt me, their razor sharp claws and beaks were unable to pierce my hide and my weapons of tooth claw and flame were unstoppable, however the flock began to avoid me and while I could overpower them and outpace them they had greater agility due to my large mass and could swiftly change directions while I had to take wide loops to turn around again.
Suddenly I began to feel an increase in the air currents drawing me into a central point and I began to resist and panic, but could see the monsters were having severe issues as well as they seemed to be getter closer and closer and flying in circles. This was before I noticed a enormous funnel of swirling air coming down from the sky and realized it was forming a tornado which explained the monsters spinning in circles and the suction of the currents. I knew this had to be Jason manipulating the winds which meant he had a plan and I needed to get the hell out of there before I got trapped in the current. So I flapped my great wings and began to back away as far as I could and watch as the tornado was struck by bolt from the Argo II creating a massive cyclone of raging green flames.
(Percy)
After Jason had landed I could see a change in the cloud pattern above the centre of the flock as they began to swirl and could see the monsters flight paths begin to alter they all seemed to be drawn in a great cyclonic nature that seemed to causing them to be drawn in further and lose control of direction. The cyclone began to condense into a tighter and tighter funnel and I remembered we had forgot about Frank but thankfully I saw him off in the distance rapidly getting away obviously understanding what was happening.
After a while a tornado begin to form in the sky above Greece and the monsters were lost from site in the great cyclone apart from the occasional glimpse here and there. However I knew even with this abuse most would still survive. Just as I was analyzing this someone on deck probably Annabeth had ordered a volley of Ballista bolts fired into the twister and the blazing bolts and swiftly creating a towering inferno of swirling green flames. I decided to help but mix it up and fire several shells of grape into the mix. The bronze shards catching in the current and creating an enormous blender that shredded the entrapped monsters. After a few more minutes the winds began to calm and we could see that other than a falling mass of golden dust where before hundreds of monsters had existed.
After a few minutes I could see Frank coming towards the ship and Leo announced we were about to descend towards the slopes of Olympus and we began to gather on the deck awaiting the demigod turned dragon. Just as he came alongside there was sign of movement on the ground below before a bolt of lightning soared upwards from a distant figure striking Frank across his left wing and flank causing him to veer to the right unfortunately we were in the way. As his great mass struck the ship the sound of metal wrenching could be heard as the oars were snapped from the hull and the ship lurched to the forcing us to grab the rail.
'Were going down' Leo screamed running onto the deck.
I looked down to see Frank struggling to stay in the air before changing into a normal eagle and going into land.
'What about Frank' Hazel screamed holding the mainmast.
'He's fine but has had to land I think' I shouted to the girl to which she looked relieved.
'Leo is there anything we can do to fix it' Annabeth asked hopingly.
'Other than pray to the gods then….no' he asked as we continued to drop.
'Well is there any way of getting us of safely' other than one at a time with Jason carrying us and what about Arion' I asked the panicking captain.'
'Well I may have used all the parachutes to prepare Athena's statue for lowering' Leo said avoiding everyone's eyes of disbelief as we looked at him in horror.
'I can't believe you would do something so stupid as to use our escape route just to make your job easier, are you insane' I couldn't believe someone would do something so stupid while we are still fighting.
'Well we could still use them but we will have to hold on tight and strap Arion down' he answered fearfully.
'What do you mean hold tight and strap' Piper asked
'Well if we go down to the hold we can grab the statue and drop it before using the parachutes'
'I can see Arion loving this idea' Hazel stated.
'It doesn't matter we re running out of time before we drop to much and the parachutes don't work' I said closing the matter before leading everyone deck.
'What the fucking hell are you fucking idiots doing up there' Arion demanded.
'Simple answer were crashing' I replied to the pissed off horse.
'What the hell do you mean, fucking crashing?'
'We have lost control and are dropping like a stone and we need to get the hell out of here unless you want to go down with the ship' I swiftly explained.
'Fuck no, but next time I am staying on the ground. Pegasus can keep the fucking sky this is bullshit.' Arion relented.
I lead the horse from his stable and towards the statue where the others had gathered and Leo was checking the door controls and the others were securing themselves in makeshift harnesses. Annabeth ran in with a large pack on her back that I guessed contained her emergency supplies and Laptop. I couldn't believe she would go and get it at a time like this but she was here now.
'Where is Nemea' I whispered to her while strapping Arion down against the statues waist.
'She wasn't in my room when I went to look for her'
'Well were out of time she will have to jump off then and make her own way then' I said before beginning to fit a harness around her.
'Everything is ready to go' Leo said opening the doors below us where we could see the rapidly approaching ground before strapping himself on.
I was beginning to strap myself down when I saw a flash across the room and noticed that Nemea was cowering behind a crate in the corner; I quickly unstrapped myself and ran towards the cowering cub. Only to stumble as the deck shook and the hull began to collapse around me. I continued to stumble towards the kitten while the others shouted asking what I was doing to which I ignored them and grabbed Nemea.
As I turned, the deck suddenly shifted again as if struck by something large ad I fell to the ground still cuddling the whimpering cub. I looked up to see awful as the blow had forced the cradle holding the statue had become loosened, I looked in horror to see it collapse and begin to fall. My last sight before it fell and the ship exploded around was Annabeth's Beautiful face.
'Percy!' I heard Annabeth cry before my world went up in flames.
