AN: I thought it fitting to update today since this entire story is unfolding on this day, June 21, the summer solstice. Also, a HUGE thanks to everyone who voted in The Veritas Awards this round. My story, The First Legion, won the Verita for Best Character Portrayal! My story Prison Half-Blood is tied in the Best AU category this round, so please go vote for the tiebreaker. Thanks again -dmac
9. Evasive Maneuvers
The crew of the Argo II barely had time to catch their breath before there was a loud thud on the hull of the ship.
"Oh, what now," Piper complained when she felt the jolt to the ship.
Leo looked at the sonar screen and saw one large image directly underneath the ship and six others closing on their position.
"It's the giants!" Leo yelled across the deck.
As soon as Leo spoke those words, the head of the giant, Polybotes, emerged from the water off the starboard bow.
"Percy Jackson!" the giant gurgled. "You can't get away from me that easily!"
Percy grinned and popped his fingers, "You're on my turf now, dummy."
Percy threw his arms forward and took control of the water creating an enormous whirlpool that began to encase the giant. Polybotes reached out to grab the Argo II, but was only able to graze the hull with his fingertips as the whirlpool drug him away from the ship.
"Leo!" Percy yelled. "Fire at will!"
Leo armed five rounds of Greek fire grenades and launched them out of the starboard side artillery doors of the ship. It was a direct hit, and the head of the giant was engulfed in Greek fire. The giant whaled in frustration then disappeared under the surface of the water.
"Nice work, guys," Reyna said to Percy and Leo.
"It's not over yet," Leo warned. "We're about to be surrounded."
As soon as Leo said that, the giants began to emerge from the water completely surrounding the ship. The water was deep and continuing to rise; it was shoulder deep to the giants. The heroes stood in silence as they looked around them 360 degrees and saw the giants closing in on them from all sides of the ship.
Dakota broke the silence by yelling, "Battle stations!"
Leo flipped switches and pressed buttons on the wheel console arming every weapon in the Argo II's arsenal while the rest of the crew ran across the ship's deck manning their stations. Reyna ran to the mainmast and cut a rope that was tethered to the deck. She held onto the rope as the counterweight it was attached to plummeted from the top of the mainmast to the deck of the ship sending her rocketing toward the top of the mainmast. Once there, she perched herself securely beside the flag and drew her bow. Jason ran to the bow of the ship as he drew his sword and readied his shield, and Percy did the same as he ran toward the stern. Annabeth and Piper took position on the starboard side, and Dakota on the port side.
The rain was still pouring down, and the rising water was choppy and white-capping causing the Argo II rock and sway. Leo held onto the wheel tightly in an attempt to keep the ship steady as it sat at idle with nowhere to go. Leo waited patiently for the giants to get within range of the ships weapons.
"A little closer, a little closer," Leo muttered to himself as he watched the missile guidance system finally lock onto the targets. "Fire!"
Cannonballs, arrows, and Greek fire grenades flew out of the artillery doors on both the starboard and port sides of the ship while torpedoes whizzed out of their tubes toward the bow and stern.
Deafening explosions echoed throughout the valley as the projectiles nailed their targets with impressive accuracy. The giants roared with pain and anger then quickly disappeared beneath the water's surface.
Percy turned to Leo, "Where'd they go?"
"Oh, they're still there," Leo said looking at the blips on his sonar screen. "They're just regrouping."
Leo armed another round of weapons in his arsenal and waited for the giants to reappear. It wasn't long before the giants reemerged from beneath the water's surface. The depth of the water was now up to the giant's necks; only their heads broke the surface.
"Fire!" Leo yelled again as he launched the ships weapons with the exact same results as before. "Wash, rinse, repeat…I could do this all day!"
Percy was looking down at the water from the stern of the ship when he began to notice bubbles breaking the surface. At first there were only a few, but soon they greatly intensified in volume.
"Hey, Leo," Percy said. "Can you get us moving?"
"Moving? Why?" Leo asked.
"I think we just got invited to a crab boil," Percy said still looking at the bubbling and now steaming water near the stern of the ship.
"A crab…" Leo started but instinctively looked at the hull temperature gauge on his console which read 200 degrees F. "Holy Hephaestus! It's Mimas, it has to be!"
"How about you get us out of here before the bronze hull plating starts to melt or we all get steamed like vegetables," Percy suggested.
"I'm on it," Leo said as he pushed the throttle forward slightly. "Everybody, hold on! This might get a little bumpy!"
The ship began to move forward, but was met by enormous hands emerging from the water off the bow.
"Evasive maneuvers, Leo!" Jason yelled from the bow. "Evasive maneuvers!"
Leo turned the wheel hard to starboard, and Jason pulled up a gust of wind to turn the sail and help the ship avoid the giant's clutches. The ship cleared the giant's grasp, but was now on a collision course with the head of the giant Porphyrion.
"Ram him, Leo!" Dakota yelled.
"Brace for impact!" Leo yelled as he pushed the throttle all the way down and rammed the triangular bow of the Argo II right between Porphyrion's eyes.
The Argo II hit the giant with so much force, it sent everyone tumbling to the deck, and left Porphyrion sinking beneath the ship. It also sent Reyna flying off the top of the main mast, screaming as she fell. Annabeth, still lying on the deck, drew her dagger and threw it toward a rope on the mast rigging, slicing it in two. The sail whipped around as it was now free from its tether and caught Reyna as she fell. Reyna slid down the sail, it slowing her fall and allowing her to regain her composure. She gauged her decent and leaped when she reached the bottom of the sail. She hit the deck in a barrel roll, but was quickly up on her feet standing near the wheel deck.
Leo gasped, "Gods, are you okay?"
Reyna dusted herself off, "I think so. Fine driving, Leo."
"Crap!" Leo yelled as he turned the wheel hard to port to avoid the emerging head of another giant, and everyone, again, went tumbling to the deck.
"Dammit, Leo," Reyna grumbled as she got to her feet. "Would you stop trying to kill me?"
"Why? It's kinda fun," Leo grinned then winked, and Reyna couldn't help but laugh at his banter, but her laughter was cut short at the sight of a hand reaching out of the water near the starboard railing at the stern.
"Percy, lookout!" she yelled.
Percy quickly raised his hand taking control of the water and creating a wall of water between the giant's hand and the ship then he used his powers to create a swift current to push the ship away from the giant.
"Guys!" Piper yelled across the deck. "We've got trouble up here."
Enceladus was off the starboard side of the ship, only his head and hands out of the water, but in his hands was his spear.
"Take cover!" Annabeth yelled as Enceladus swung his spear toward the Argo II making solid contact with the foremast effectively splintering the wooden post halfway up.
The foremast, now broken in half began to collapse onto the starboard side of the ship right where Piper was standing. Dakota ran across the deck as fast as he could and tackled Piper successfully knocking them both out of the path of the falling mast and sail.
Piper coughed as the force of Dakota's hit had knocked the wind out of her, "Thanks, Dakota."
"See, I'm not totally useless," Dakota joked as he helped Piper to her feet.
"I guess not," Piper smiled.
Leo was arming a torpedo as he grumbled to himself, "You're gonna pay for damaging my ship."
Leo fired the torpedo at Enceladus, and it was a direct hit. The giant's spear went flying out of his hand, and he whaled in agony as he began to sink below the surface.
"Oh, no!" Leo gasped as he noticed the spear that went flying out of Enceladus' hand was flying directly toward the deck of the ship. "Everybody lookout!"
Everyone dove for cover as the twenty foot long spear landed violently on the deck near the stern completely crushing the wheel console.
"Leo!" Jason yelled with panic when he saw the crushed wheel console. "Leo!"
"Right here," Leo said as he pushed fallen debris off of himself. "Ouch."
Jason, Dakota, and Percy ran over to Leo and helped him out from under a pile of rubble.
Leo looked at his completely destroyed wheel console and shook his head, "This is bad. Without that console, I have no control of anything on this ship: weapons, throttle, steering, you name it."
"What do we do now?" Jason asked as he looked across the water noticing the ship was on a high speed collision course with a mountainside.
"I don't know," Leo shook his head. "Both sails are out of commission, the rudder control is destroyed, and the propeller is turning at full speed, we're a runaway train."
"I'll go down to the engine room, see if I can shut her down manually," Dakota said.
"Good idea," Leo nodded, and Dakota ran down below deck.
Leo looked over to Percy, "Is there anything you can do? You know, with the water?"
"Hey guys, look," Annabeth interrupted as she ran to the stern and pointed toward the seven giants who were now making their way toward the mountainside. "They're retreating."
"We have to follow them," Jason said. "They'll be out of Phlegra and won't be immortal anymore."
"Speaking of immortal," Percy said. "Where are the gods?"
"I bet they're up on the mountain waiting to cut the giants off from making their run on Olympus," Annabeth guessed.
"You and Athena work this out beforehand?" Leo asked.
"No," Annabeth answered. "But it's the best strategy. The gods knew that once the giants were flooded out of Phlegra, they would have no choice but to make their move to destroy Olympus. Think about it, we drive the giants toward Mount Olympus, and the gods wait in ambush; the hounds to the hunters. It's perfect."
"Oh," Leo nodded. "Wait…did you just call us dogs?"
Reyna shook her head and rolled her eyes, "She wasn't being literal."
Dakota emerged from below deck and ran over to the rest of the crew, "Good news and bad news… the good news is, I was able to decrease the fuel going to the engine, so that should slow her down, but the bad news is, all the manual switches are jammed, so there's no stopping this beast."
"What do you think, Percy?" Leo asked hoping for a plan.
"I'll make a current to steer us toward the giants, but I can't guarantee I can get the ship to stop before it hits the mountainside."
"Well," Leo exhaled. "I guess we should be prepared to abandon ship."
"Probably wouldn't hurt," Percy agreed.
"Okay, guys," Leo said. "Let's do this."
Percy went over to the stern and held his hand out over the rail. The water began to swirl creating a current that guided the ship toward the spot where the giants were beginning to make their way out of the water and onto the Olympus Mountain Range. The ship was quickly approaching land, and everyone was standing at the rails preparing to leap overboard if need be.
"You got this, Percy," Annabeth said to him with confidence.
Percy closed his eyes and concentrated on slowing the ship. As the Argo II neared the mountainside, it began to slow, but not enough.
Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand right before the ship slammed into the mountain and yelled, "Jump!"
Everyone leaped overboard as the Argo II crashed into the side of Mount Olympus.
