"You are in so much trouble," Clarisse said.
They'd just finished a ship tour they didn't want, through dark rooms overcrowded with dead sailors.
They'd seen the coal bunker, the boilers and engine, which huffed and groaned like it would explode any minute. They'd seen the pilothouse and the powder magazine and gunnery deck (Clarisse's favorite) with two Dahlgren smoothbore cannons on the port and starboard sides and a Brooke nine-inch rifled gun fore and aft—all specially refitted to fire celestial bronze cannon balls.
Everywhere they went, dead Confederate sailors stared at us, their ghostly bearded faces shimmering over their skulls. They approved of Annabeth because she told them she was from Virginia. They were interested in Percy, too, because my name was Jackson—like the Southern general—but then he ruined it by telling them he was from New York. They all hissed and muttered curses about Yankees. Gohan had it even worse. They just snarled at him and called him a flurry of names that made Annabeth livid, though Gohan wasn't sure what they meant.
"That's racist!"
Tyson was terrified of them. All through the tour, he insisted Annabeth hold his hand, which she didn't look too thrilled about.
Finally, they were escorted to dinner. The CSS Birmingham captain's quarters were about the size of a walk-in closet, but still much bigger than any other room on board. The table was set with white linen and china. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, and Dr Peppers were served by skeletal crewmen. Percy didn't want to eat anything served by ghosts, but his hunger overruled his fear. Gohan didn't even hesitate.
"You know, one day, you're going to eat so fast that someone's going to poison you." Annabeth glanced at Clarisse when she said that. Clarisse snorted.
"Tantalus expelled you all for eternity," Clarisse told us smugly. "Mr. D said if any of you show your face at camp again, he'll turn you into squirrels and run you over with his SUV."
"I'm not scared of that guy." Percy could have sworn that the submarine rumbled when Gohan said. Then again, this sub shook a lot.
"Did they give you this ship?" Percy asked. "'Course not. My father did."
"Ares? But I blew him into a thousand pieces!" Percy wanted to slap Gohan. Wrong time and place to mention that. Clarisse's eyes flared.
"Ares is a god, you buffoon! An immortal! You didn't kill him, you couldn't! He's simply been reforming this whole time!" Gohan nodded.
"Oh. We had a bad guy back home who managed to get himself immortal. Garlic Jr. Guy was impossible to kill. I mean, I once blew a hole through his stomach, and he simply regenerated it and kept going. He almost took over the entire world, too, by controlling everyone's minds with magic mist." Clarisse snorted.
"That's pathetic."
"So… how'd you win?" Percy asked.
"I destroyed his source of power and helped trapped him into this void he created, the Dead Zone. You float through pitch blackness for eternity. So, since he's immortal, he's trapped there forever."
"Jeez." Annabeth whistled.
Clarisse sneered. "You think your daddy is the only one with sea power, Jackson? The spirits on the losing side of every war owe a tribute to Ares. That's their curse for being defeated. I prayed to my father for a naval transport and here it is. These guys will do anything I tell them. Won't you, Captain?"
The captain stood behind her looking stiff and angry. His glowing green eyes fixed the others with a hungry stare. "If it means an end to this infernal war, ma'am, peace at last, we'll do anything. Destroy anyone."
Clarisse smiled. "Destroy anyone. I like that." Tyson gulped.
"Clarisse," Annabeth said, "Luke might be after the Fleece, too. We saw him. He's got the coordinates and he's heading south. He has a cruise ship full of monsters—"
"Good! I'll blow him out of the water." Gohan snorted.
"Your ship is, like, a dot compared to that boat."
"You don't understand, Clarisse. Luke's partner… it's unlike anything we've ever seen. It disabled me and Percy with a flick of a finger and tossed us around like we were nothing!" Annabeth protested.
"There's this girl too, who can control metal! Like rip it from the walls and hurl it at you! You are on the worse possible type of vessel right now." Percy added. Clarisse snorted.
"Oh please. You really thing I'm gonna believe that? A girl that can control metal, how stupid is that?" Annabeth was livid.
"It won't be so stupid when she crumples this ship and you in it!" Percy protested.
"Clarisse! We have to combine forces. Let us help you—"
"No!" Clarisse pounded the table. "This is my quest, smart girl! Finally I get to be the hero, and you three will not steal my chance. Especially not him!" she pointed at Gohan, who sighed in exasperation.
"Where are your cabin mates?" Percy asked. "You were allowed to take two friends with you, weren't you?"
"They didn't ... I let them stay behind. To protect the camp."
"You mean even the people in your own cabin wouldn't help you?"
"Shut up, Prissy! I don't need them! Or you!"
"Clarisse," Percy said, "Tantalus is using you. He doesn't care about the camp. He'd love to see it destroyed. He's setting you up to fail."
"No! I don't care what the Oracle—" She stopped herself. "What?" Percy said. "What did the Oracle tell you?"
"Nothing." Clarisse's ears turned pink. "All you need to know is that I'm finishing this quest and you're not helping. On the other hand, I can't let you go ..."
"So we're prisoners?" Annabeth asked.
"Guests. For now." Clarisse propped her feet up on the white linen tablecloth and opened another Dr Pepper. "Captain, take them below. Assign them hammocks on the berth deck. If they don't mind their manners, show them how we deal with enemy spies. Except him." Clarisse pointed at Gohan with a look of loathing.
"Lock him up and toss him in the brig! Celestial bronze chains should do!" Gohan shot up, his hands sparking as several sailors shuffled towards him with gold chains. Percy shot up as well, his hand pulling out his pen. However, Annabeth was the one who ultimately saved them.
"Hospitium!" she cried, causing everyone to freeze and look at her.
"What?" Clarisse said.
"Hospitium! Guest right! I'm invoking the law of Hospitium, between host and guest!" Gohan and Percy looked confused, but Clarisse snarled.
"That doesn't apply here, Chase." Annabeth snorted.
"Oh yes it does. You welcomed us, strangers, onto this vessel, and you gave us food and drink. Plus, you yourself just called us guests. That grants me, Percy, Tyson and Gohan the right to hospitality, and places us under the protection of Zeus, who is also the god of strangers and suppliants. If you break this right, you are subject to the wrath of Zeus himself. Breaking the laws of hospitality is one of the gravest laws you can commit against the gods. Remember the story of the House of Atreus?" The sky above them shook with thunder, so loud that they could all clearly hear it, even over the engines below. Percy and Gohan both marveled at Annabeth's ingenuity. Clarisse's face turned as red as the magma from the climbing walls. The zombies backed away.
"She speaks the truth, my lady. We dare not risk Zeus' wrath." The captain stiffly spoke. Clarisse looked like she wanted to yank out her spear and run Gohan and Annabeth through with it.
"… Very well. Escort them all below. And… take care of them." Gohan did not like the way Clarisse quoted that. Five minutes later, the small group was nestled in their hammocks.
"Annabeth… that was awesome!" Gohan laughed.
"Yeah. You really saved our butts back there." Percy could have sworn Annabeth was beet red, but he couldn't tell
"You're welcome. Honestly, I thought of it the moment we stepped on board, considering how… on odds you are with Clarisse."
"Not my fault."
"More like a series of bad coincidences." Percy added. Annabeth snorted.
"Boys." A minute later, they heard snoring from her hammock.
"Why are girls so weird, Percy? They act the same back home." Gohan asked. Percy snickered.
"I have a funny feeling that girls are something no one understands, anywhere." Gohan chuckled at that before slipping into sleep. Well, unlike Percy, he didn't dream of Grover or being trapped on an island. Instead, he found himself in what looked like a plasma lamp world, a wide array of bright, glowing colors. Gohan couldn't describe it, but it felt… nice. Warm. And calm. Quiet and peaceful. He wasn't sure how long he floated there, immersed in the warmth and comfort. Then, a voice called out.
"Go… han…" It was so faint that Gohan wasn't sure if he had heard it at first. Then, it repeated.
"Gohan…" it was a bit louder now. Gohan could have sworn that it was a familiar voice, but he wasn't sure. Something shimmered in front of him. But before he could get a closer look, the whole world shook.
Gohan woke to alarm bells ringing throughout the ship.
The captain's gravelly voice: "All hands on deck! Find Lady Clarisse! Where is that girl?"
Then, Percy's face appeared over Gohan's. "Get up, Gohan. Annabeth's already above! We're almost there."
"Almost where?"
Percy smirked. "The Sea of Monsters."
The two of them were on their way upstairs when something made them freeze. A presence nearby—something familiar and unpleasant. For no particular reason, Gohan let out a snarl. He felt like he wanted to explode. Ascend to the highest level and rip everything apart. The last time he'd felt like that kind of anger ...
Instead of going up, Percy and Gohan crept to the edge of the ventilation grate and peered down into the boiler deck.
Clarisse was standing right below them, talking to an image that shimmered in the steam from the boilers—a muscular man in black leather biker clothes, with a military haircut, red-tinted sunglasses, and a knife strapped to his side. Gohan snarled while Percy's fists clenched. It was their least favorite Olympian: Ares, the god of war. "I don't want excuses, little girl!" he growled.
"Y-yes, father," Clarisse mumbled.
"You don't want to see me mad, do you?"
"No, father."
"No, father," Ares mimicked. "You're pathetic. I should've let one of my sons take this quest."
"I'll succeed!" Clarisse promised, her voice trembling. "I'll make you proud."
"You'd better," he warned. "You asked me for this quest, girl. If you let that slimeball Jackson kid steal it from you—"
"Father…"
"AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT OTHERWORLDER! HE MADE MY NAME A LAUGHINGSTOCK!" It was so loud that the boys almost went deaf.
"I couldn't, Father! They invoked Hospitum—"
"DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE?"
"But the Oracle said—"
"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAID!" Ares bellowed with such force that his image shimmered. "You will succeed. And if you don't ..."
He raised his fist. Even though he was only a figure in the steam, Clarisse flinched. "Do we understand each other?" Ares growled.
The alarm bells rang again.
The two of them crept back from the ventilation grate and made their way upstairs to join Annabeth and Tyson on the spar deck.
"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked. "Another dream?" Percy and Gohan traded nervous looks.
Clarisse came up the stairs right after them.
She grabbed a pair of binoculars from a zombie officer and peered toward the horizon. "At last. Captain, full steam ahead!"
Gohan looked in the same direction as she was, but couldn't see much. The sky was overcast. The air was hazy and humid, like steam from an iron.
The engine groaned as they increased speed.
Tyson muttered nervously, "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water."
After a few more minutes, the dark splotches ahead of us came into focus. To the north, a huge mass of rock rose out of the sea—an island with cliffs at least a hundred feet tall. About half a mile south of that, the other patch of darkness was a storm brewing. The sky and sea boiled together in a roaring mass.
"Hurricane?" Annabeth asked. "No," Clarisse said. "Charybdis." Annabeth paled. "Are you crazy?"
"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla." Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs, and Percy got the feeling something lived up there that he did not want to meet.
"Wait, what?" Gohan asked curiously. Annabeth groaned.
"I gave you that guidebook for a reason! So you would be prepared for these types of things?"
"What do you mean the only way?" Percy asked, ignoring Gohan and Annabeth's bickering. "The sea is wide open! Just sail around them."
Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Don't you know anything? If I tried to sail around them, they would just appear in my path again. If you want to get into the Sea of Monsters, you have to sail through them." Gohan cocked his head curiously.
"What if we just fly over them? Does that count?" Clarisse and Annabeth looked confused.
"What do you mean?" Gohan beamed.
"Well, you all know that I'm pretty strong. So, what if I just pick up this boat, lift it into the air, and carry over these two things? Once we're over, I just settle the boat back down, and we're on our way." Percy actually marveled at the ingenuity of this plan, but Annabeth shook her head.
"Too many ways that it can go wrong. This ship is way too hot, for one. Once it was out of the water, it would heat up to intense degrees. You'll burn your hands again. Plus, your hands would be occupied with the boat, leaving you open as easy prey for Scylla. And if you accidentally drop the boat from that height, you might wreck the whole thing." She then turned to Clarisse.
"What about the Clashing Rocks?" Annabeth said. "That's another gateway. Jason used it." "I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons," Clarisse said. "Monsters, on the other hand ..." "You are crazy," Annabeth decided.
"Watch and learn, Wise Girl." Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!" "Aye, m'lady."
The engine groaned, the iron plating rattled, and the ship began to pick up speed. "Clarisse," Percy said, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"
"And spits it back out again, yeah."
"What about Scylla?"
"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship."
"Geez." Gohan said with wide eyes.
"Choose Scylla then," Percy said. "Everybody goes below deck and we chug right past."
"No!" Clarisse insisted. "If Scylla doesn't get her easy meat, she might pick up the whole ship. Besides, she's too high to make a good target. My cannons can't shoot straight up. Charybdis just sits there at the center of her whirlwind. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"
She said it with such relish that Percy almost wanted to believe her.
The engine hummed. The boilers were heating up so much Percy could feel the deck getting warm beneath my feet. The smokestacks billowed. The red Ares flag whipped in the wind.
As they got closer to the monsters, the sound of Charybdis got louder and louder—a horrible wet roar like the galaxy's biggest toilet being flushed. Every time Charybdis inhaled, the ship shuddered and lurched forward. Every time she exhaled, they rose in the water and were buffeted by ten-foot waves.
Undead sailors calmly went about their business on the spar deck. Percy guess they'd fought a losing cause before, so this didn't bother them. Or maybe they didn't care about getting destroyed because they were already deceased. Neither thought made him feel any better.
Annabeth stood next to Percy, gripping the rail. "You still have your thermos full of wind?"
Percy nodded. "But it's too dangerous to use with a whirlpool like that. More wind might just make things worse."
"What about controlling the water?" she asked. "You're Poseidon's son. You've done it before."
"I—I can't," Percy said miserably.
"We need a backup plan," Annabeth said. "This isn't going to work."
"Annabeth is right," Tyson said. "Engine's no good."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Pressure. Pistons need fixing."
Before he could explain, the cosmic toilet flushed with a mighty roaaar! The ship lurched forward and I was thrown to the deck. They were in the whirlpool.
"Full reverse!" Clarisse screamed above the noise. The sea churned around them, waves crashing over the deck. The iron plating was now so hot it steamed. "Get us within firing range! Make ready starboard cannons!"
Dead Confederates rushed back and forth. The propeller grinded into reverse, trying to slow the ship, but they kept sliding toward the center of the vortex. Annabeth gritted her teeth and turned towards Gohan.
"Gohan, get into the air! You can act as our aerial reconnaissance. Blast Charybdis, and watch out for Scylla!" Gohan nodded, before shooting into the air. When he was in the air, he shuddered. He then thrust his hands out and roared, blowing out a massive wave of wind. It made the mist in front of Gohan part for a brief second, enough to give him a glimpse of Charybdis. It was… disgusting.
She appeared only a few hundred yards away, through a swirl of mist and smoke and water. The first thing Gohan noticed was the reef—a black crag of coral with a fig tree clinging to the top, an oddly peaceful thing in the middle of a maelstrom. All around it, water curved into a funnel, like light around a black hole. Then, Gohan saw the horrible thing anchored to the reef just below the waterline—an enormous mouth with slimy lips and mossy teeth the size of rowboats. And worse, the teeth had braces, bands of corroded scummy metal with pieces of fish and driftwood and floating garbage stuck between them.
Charybdis was an orthodontist's nightmare. She was nothing but a huge black maw with bad teeth alignment and a serious overbite, and she'd done nothing for centuries but eat without brushing after meals. As he watched, the entire sea around her was sucked into the void— sharks, schools of fish, a giant squid. And Percy realized that in a few seconds, the CSS Birmingham would be next. Gohan decided to make a quick test. He pressed his hands together over his head.
"MASENKO-HA!" Gohan roared, firing a massive yellow light from his hands. It shot into the beast's jaw, briefly fading away. Then, a massive plume of smoke shot out of the monster's maw, followed by an inhuman roar of pure rage.
"Huh." Gohan commented as he cocked his head.
"Well, that didn't work!" Percy commented sarcastically.
A zombie sailor burst out of the hold and ran to Clarisse. His gray uniform was smoking. His beard was on fire. "Boiler room overheating, ma'am! She's going to blow!"
"Well, get down there and fix it!"
"Can't!" the sailor yelled. "We're vaporizing in the heat."
Clarisse pounded the side of the casemate. "All I need is a few more minutes! Just enough to get in range!"
"Are you serious? Gohan just fired a blast strong enough to blow up a building, and all it did was piss it off!" Clarisse snorted as she punched the deck railing.
"We're going in too fast," the captain said grimly. "Prepare yourself for death." "No!" Tyson bellowed. "I can fix it."
Clarisse looked at him incredulously. "You?"
"He's a Cyclops," Annabeth said. "He's immune to fire. And he knows mechanics." "Go!" yelled Clarisse.
"Tyson, no!" Percy grabbed his arm. "It's too dangerous!"
He patted Percy's hand. "Only way, brother." His expression was determined—confident, even. He'd never seen him look like this before. "I will fix it. Be right back."
"Lady Clarisse," the captain shouted. "Starboard and forward guns are in range!" "Fire!" Clarisse ordered.
Three rounds were blasted into the monster's maw. One blew off the edge of an incisor. Another disappeared into her gullet. The third hit one of Charybdis's retaining bands and shot back at them, snapping the Ares flag off its pole.
"Again!" Clarisse ordered. The gunners reloaded, but Percy knew it was hopeless. They would have to pound the monster a hundred more times to do any real damage, and they didn't have that long. They were being sucked in too fast. A bright blue light shot over their heads and smashed into the side of her jaw, erupting in another flash of light. The wind was so intense that the boat briefly rattled. But when the smoke faded, the only visible damage was a few singe marks and missing incisors.
Then the vibrations in the deck changed. The hum of the engine got stronger and steadier. The ship shuddered and they started pulling away from the mouth.
"Tyson did it!" Annabeth said.
"Wait!" Clarisse said. "We need to stay close!" "We'll die!" Percy said. "We have to move away." Annabeth waved upwards at Gohan.
"Distract her!" thank gods, he understood. Gohan raised his hands and pressed them together, unleashing a flurry of bright yellow ki blasts into the maw, erupting in small explosions. These weren't as powerful as the previous ones, but they were much more annoying. The monster erupted in another roar. Then, the mouth snapped shut. The sea died to absolute calm. Water washed over Charybdis.
"Hey, I think I did it!" Gohan beamed as he continued to blast, the yellow balls exploding against the creature's closed mouth.
Then, just as quickly as it had closed, the mouth exploded open, spitting out a wall of water, ejecting everything inedible, including their cannonballs, one of which slammed into the side of the CSS Birmingham with a ding like the bell on a carnival game. Gohan was barely able to dodge the second.
They were thrown backward on a wave that must've been forty feet high. It took all of Percy's willpower to keep the ship from capsizing, but they were still spinning out of control, hurtling toward the cliffs on the opposite side of the strait. Before they smashed into the cliffs, however, they slowed down, and came to a stop barely two feet away. Confused, Percy looked over the edge and saw why. Gohan was floating beneath him, his hands pressed on the hull. He had flown down and pushed the ship, enough to save them from a collision.
"Nice save!" Percy yelled, causing Gohan to look up at him and smirk. Then, he let out a howl of pain as he floated away from the ship.
"HOOOOOOOTTTTTTTT!" Percy groaned as Gohan plunged his hands into the sea and sighed with relief.
Another smoldering sailor burst out of the hold. He stumbled into Clarisse, almost knocking them both overboard. "The engine is about to blow!"
"Where's Tyson?" Percy demanded.
"Still down there," the sailor said. "Holding it together somehow, though I don't know for how much longer."
The captain said, "We have to abandon ship."
"No!" Clarisse yelled.
"We have no choice, m'lady. The hull is already cracking apart! She can't—"
He never finished his sentence. Quick as lightning, something brown and green shot from the sky, snatched up the captain, and lifted him away. All that was left were his leather boots.
"Scylla!" a sailor yelled, as another column of reptilian flesh shot from the cliffs and snapped him up. It happened so fast it was like watching a laser beam rather than a monster. Percy couldn't even make out the thing's face, just a flash of teeth and scales.
"Phew!" Gohan sighed as he lifted his hands out of the water, still red. Then, in an instant, something yanked at his back, ripping him into the air with a startled yell.
"Gohan, watch out!" Percy yelled as he uncapped Riptide and tried to swipe at the monster as it carried off another deckhand, but he was way too slow.
"A LITTLE LATE FOR THAT!" Percy looked up to see Gohan struggling in the air, his shirt caught in Scylla's mouth.
"Gohan!" Annabeth cried out
"He'll be fine! Everyone get below!" Percy yelled.
"We can't!" Clarisse drew her own sword. "Below deck is in flames." "Lifeboats!" Annabeth said. "Quick!"
"They'll never get clear of the cliffs," Clarisse said. "We'll all be eaten."
"Gohan can keep Scylla distracted! But we have to move!" Percy cried.
"We have to try. Percy, the thermos."
"I can't leave Tyson!"
"We have to get the boats ready!"
Clarisse took Annabeth's command. She and a few of her undead sailors uncovered one of the two emergency rowboats while Scylla's heads rained from the sky like a meteor shower with teeth, picking off Confederate sailors one after another.
"Come on!" Gohan roared as a blue fire surrounded his body. He snarled as he struggled to free himself from the monsters' grip. A blue light formed in his hand, and he grunted as he twisted his hand to aim just over his head, blasting Scylla right in the face. The beam did the job, for once. Scylla's head exploded, showing Gohan in monster goop… again. He flew free, a loud tear echoing. He blinked in surprise as he looked down… and grimaced.
"Oh, come on!" His shirt had been torn to shreds, ripped by Scylla's teeth. The pieces left fell off him, little more than orange ribbons. Leaving him shirtless.
"Seriously?" Then, he let out a yelp in alarm as he whirled out of the way of another one of Scylla's heads, pulling out Ascension as he jabbed at her eye, hitting the mark dead on. Her head grunted and receded.
"COME ON!" Gohan roared.
"Get the other boat." Percy threw Annabeth the thermos. "I'll get Tyson."
"You can't!" she said. "The heat will kill you!"
Percy ran for the boiler room hatch, when suddenly his feet weren't touching the deck anymore. He was flying straight up, the wind whistling in his ears, the side of the cliff only inches from his face.
Scylla had somehow caught Percy by the knapsack, and was lifting me up toward her lair.
"DESTRUCTO DISK!" A yellow disk shot over Percy's head and sliced clean through Scylla's neck, freeing Percy as the head toppled and fell into the water with a loud splash. Percy was sure that he was about to go splat, but then he was yanked mid-air.
"I didn't know that you could fly!" Gohan laughed as he gripped Percy's underarms.
"Not funny! And what happened to your shirt?" Percy asked.
"It got shredded!" Gohan yelled as they ducked under a darting head.
"Come on, I need to get Tyson!" But then, the CSS Birmingham exploded below them.
KAROOM!
The engine room blew, sending chunks of ironclad flying in either direction like a fiery set of wings.
"Tyson!" Percy yelled.
"ANNABETH!" Gohan cried out.
The lifeboats had managed to get away from the ship, but not very far. Flaming wreckage was raining down. Clarisse and Annabeth would either be smashed or burned or pulled to the bottom by the force of the sinking hull, and that was thinking optimistically, assuming they got away from Scylla.
"We have to help them!"
Then, they heard a different kind of explosion—the sound of Hermes's magic thermos being opened a little too far in Percy's backpack… which was pressed directly against Gohan's chest. For one second, the two boys froze.
"Oh, come o…" Gohan was then slammed in the chest, which felt like one of Vegeta's punches. He screamed as he was ripped away from Percy, sending them shooting them in opposite directions. White sheets of wind blasted in every direction, scattering the lifeboats, lifting Percy out of his free fall and propelling him across the ocean. Gohan shot toward the water, so fast that he couldn't stop himself. He hit the water with a crash, then bouncing across the surface of the water like a stone in a pond.
The last thing he remembered was sinking in a burning sea, overwhelmed by a feeling of complete failure.