I had been attacked by a lot of monsters in my time. Heck, I'd even fought a few giants and a god here and there. But this, this was new.

"Duck!" Kat yelled as she threw her dagger at high velocity towards my head. I barely had time to hit the deck before it burrowed into the machine or whatever it was attacking us. I couldn't tell what it was, it flew too fast. Mechanical tings and other annoying sounds could be heard. It was shooting what looked to be fiery balls of dirty laundry at our ship and I was doing everything I could to keep the flames at bay. I wasn't sure we'd last another five minutes at this rate. The weird thing about our enemy was that it didn't seem to every attack or fire on us, just on the ship. And it's attacks were never aimed at the control room as if it were trying to preserve it. Maybe it was somebody trying to accommodate our ship for themselves. Not gonna happen; this boat was the biggest chance I had at finding my parents.

"Will get back!" Nico yelled, grabbing Will's arm and yanking him backward. A fireball landed on the deck between them, sending flames skittering across the floor.

"Jase!" Will uselessly got my attention. As if anybody could not see the fire consuming our ship. I did a smash up job of painting the deck with a layer of seawater, but I was running out of energy and time. Somebody needed to do something- and quick. And as always, the gods' promise had given us nothing. Dionysus has told me he'd give me something to help us find the goblet and get our parents. So far, I haven't heard as much as a word.

"Thanks a lot, Mr. D," I muttered.

I guess Nico was kind of right. Somebody was listening alright. And Dionysus must have been mad because he sent us another ball of fire, but this one was screaming.

"HOLY SHIIIIIIII-"

The flaming, screaming, I don't know what it was, slammed straight into the ship's mast. As the flames subsided and he slid down the mast and onto the deck, I was able to recognize our newest assault as a boy, about my age, maybe a year or two younger. He groaned and rolled over to stand up.

"What in the hell…?" He cursed like a mortal, something I didn't expect on a flying Greek warship. His skin was dark brown and his eyes were the color of almond chocolate. He wasn't very tall, maybe five and a half feet.

"He's not really a demigod, but I can't tell what he is," Will muttered. Not a demigod? But he isn't mortal either. He didn't look like a monster but I knew better than to believe it. Perks of being Apollo's son, Will could sense these kinds of things easier, so I trusted his instinct.

"Who are you?" I asked, pointing the tip of my sword to his chest. His eyes followed the sword up to the handle until he got to my face.

"Oh, God. I'm dreaming right now. This is just a very lucid dream. I'm dreaming," he said. He raised his hand and pinched himself. No monster I've met was stupid enough to forget it's own attack. This was a first.

"Not dreaming, buddy." Casey stepped up next to me. The stranger moved his mouth like he wanted to talk but no words came out. I couldn't tell if he looked more confused, or terrified. Yeah, not like any monster I've ever seen.

"He's a good guy," Adora said, walking casually onto the deck. I subconsciously lowered my sword and scooped her up.

"Adora Jackson! There are balls of fire raining down on this ship, it's dangerous! We don't know what monsters are out there!"

Casey took over threatening whoever was on our deck while I lectured Adora.

"Excuse me," the mystery guy said, staring at me. I really need to learn his name. "but did you just say monsters?" he asked slowly. "Like werewolves and vampires?" Did this guy really not know anything?

"Uh, no." Jonathan looked more confused than the boy did. "Greek monsters,"

The strange boy's eyes went wide before rolling back into the back of his head. Kat poked him with a broomstick, her weapon of choice.

"He just, dude he just passed out. Like seriously, he passed out!" she said. No way this kid was a monster. I don't think he even knew about the Greek world. We all stood around him, staring and unsure what to say. We were interrupted by another attack by the infamous, thing, that was attacking us.

"Ok that's it we need to get off the deck. I don't have the energy to keep anything else from this boat and I know I'm not the only one. Nico, bring us back down to the water and I'll try and soak everything up here so it will be harder to catch fire. Everybody, get inside," I quickly ordered everybody below decks.

In the dining hall, we laid the unconscious boy out onto the table. Max insisted we at least put a pillow under his head.

"What do we do with him?" Casey asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know, but before we make any decisions we should figure out who he is. Will? Can you wake him up, please?" I requested. Will nodded and placed his hands on the boy's chest. A glowing yellow light filled the cabin. It was so bright that I had to close my eyes.

"What the fu-," the boy cut himself off when he looked around. "Small children present, no cursing. Got it," he muttered to himself. He stared at us like he could tell if we were insane or if he was. "Where am I? Who are? How did I get here? What the frick is going on?" I think all of us are insane.

Will was out of energy, and in the corner of the room, I saw Nico pressing a damp cloth to his forehead. Damn, the kid must have really been out of it. The group looked to me.

"We'll answer your questions, but first you'll answer ours," I said. The boy glanced around the room again and nodded. "Good. Now first of all, who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Charlie, Charlie Valdez."

(Hey guys, I've got good news! I am finally out of the hospital and I got to come back home! I will be back to my daily updates on BOTH stories :) Thanks for reading!)