We Must Smell Really Bad

Jason's POV

Jason sucker punched a metal bird out of the sky that morning.

After the first two attacks over the Pacific, they had - or Annabeth and Hazel had - established a defence rota. It was their second day at sea, and the Mediterranean had clearly sent out the memo that they weren't welcome after the destruction they left a while ago.

Their route was not going to be a straight one, as Leo wanted to check out a new method of fuel for the ship, and they were going in a straight line from Long Island to Italy. There was this ancient metal that Hephaestus had told him about, buried deep in the sands of their beaches, that you couldn't forge no matter what you did, but would supply magical fuel for years on end. It was Leo's dream, and he was already making plans to modify the dragon that sat on the front of the ship to use the very same fuel.

So they ploughed through the seventh attack this morning, where metal birds that Hercules had shot out of the sky decided to pay a visit.

Jason saw Annabeth in his periphery, who had come on at a half shift, shoot a long dagger out of her arm that pierced at least three man eating birds. "That was for the Chariot race!"

He did not question her enthusiasm, as she slashed and threw and caused wild destruction with her fluid and acrobatic fighting. Jason turned to his right to see a group of birds in a formation flying straight at him, and flew up. They soared underneath him, but quickly snapped upwards, with the agility of a hummingbird.

Tingling shot down his arms as lightning poured form his fingertips. The metal and wiring fizzled and the birds dropped like flies, lightning bouncing from one to another.

"Neat trick, Grace." commented Annabeth, looking disdainfully at the floorboards now littered with broken metal.

"Ahh, I'm sure Leo will use it for something." He responded, slowly lowering himself to the ground.

She nodded absentmindedly, looking at the horizon. The sun had just dipped beneath the clouds, and the sky was filled with hues of blue and orange.

"Your shift's over, Jason. Go get some rest."

Jason didn't even protest. They'd only had aerial attack's so far, and they'd have too travel by sea for the majority of the rest of the way home now, because they had encountered enough planes today with faces pressed to the tiny windows, staring as they flew by. Maybe Percy will be better off than us, he thought.

Jason stumbled into the latter's room, seeing him drooling in his sleep, the pillow damp from his used-to-be-wet hair. His foot was sticking out from under the covers, so he moved sluggishly to the side of the bed and zapped his ankle, jolting him awake.

"S'your turn, Water Boy." He slurred, struggling to keep his eyes open.

"One day, you and your sister are going to give me brain damage."

Jason only witnessed him dazedly rubbing the sleep from his eyes before he walked out the door promising, "You'll g'over it."

Jason stumbled into his bedroom, as the ship landed in the sea bumpily, and heard Leo walk calmly down the stairs behind him.

He didn't acknowledge him as he went straight to sleep. It only took a few minutes for the inevitable to happen, and he could already hear the happenings of an eighth attack, with Percy yelling loudly on deck and briefly wondered if they would sink.

Oh well.

.o.O.0.O.o.

Percy's POV

I trooped up onto deck, still rubbing sleep out of my eyes and trying to find any leftover toothpaste in my mouth.

Annabeth was walking down from the controls, after landing the ship on the sea. I breathed in a deep breath, the salty, cool air reenergising me.

"Good evening, Seaweed Brain." said Annabeth, as she saw me wipe a little bit of toothpaste from the corner of my mouth.

"Why, good morning, Wise Girl." I replied, acting like a gentleman.

"You mean evening." she corrected.

I shrugged. She smiled and leaned up to kiss me. I eagerly responded before quickly pulling apart.

I began to spit, and my face scrunched up in disgust, as a tangy and sharp taste entered my mouth.

"What did you eat? Did you have lemons for breakfast?!" I exclaimed, as my eye began to involuntarily twitch and I struggled to swallow.

"What? No I didn't-" she stopped abruptly before turning to Leo. "You-"

Leo had just emerged from the storage room on deck, holding a bottle of antibacterial in one hand and a varnish in another. Probably about to clean Buford.

"Hey! What did I do?!" he said as Annabeth advanced murderously. "You dared me to eat a lemon!"

A goofy grin spread across his face. "Oh yeah. Sorry." he replied, looking far from it before walking down the stairs. Me and Piper were on the night shift, from sundown to sunrise while Annabeth and Leo were on a half shift, from midday to midnight. That way, at least two people on deck wouldn't be very tired. Jason and Hazel had just gone below deck to sleep, and Frank would come on at midnight, to replace Annabeth and Leo.

It was a very efficient rota.

Annabeth turned back to me, an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry, Kelp Head."

"Nah it's fine. Just no more kisses."

She smiled. And the ship shook. I briefly thought that her smile did it, and completely agreed with the ships reaction, till it began to rain squid.

One landed in front of me and Annabeth, and we both stared at the creature, laden with large eyes and long appendages.

"Ummm..."

For once, it seemed to me, Annabeth did not have an explanation.

"Awwww, come on little guy... let's get you back-"

I cooed, approaching the creature with arms outstretched, till it reared it's bulbous head and clamped its mouth over my arm.

"OUCH!" I yelled, my eyes widening in shock, hissing in pain.

Squid have teeth.

Another Squid landed on the deck, and then another, and another, and another. We looked round in wonder, and the pain in my arm began to pulse as the squids teeth remained buried in my flesh. How did it even pierce my skin? I shook, dislodging the evil creature, and backed up to where Annabeth stood, slightly crouching.

"Annabeth?"

"Yeah?"

"What are they?"

"I don't know, but... they might be baby Krakens? They look like squid, and Krakens are similar, but there's nothing else that I can call them, I think..."

"Right."

And they began to fly at us, using their limbs as propellers. I knocked one back into the sea with my fist before ducking under another, and spinning horizontally, my feet leaving the ground, and spinning outstretched as I spun, hitting more out of the air. I felt like a propeller myself.

I landed and saw Annabeth fluidly sending dagger after dagger into the mythical ship-eaters, ducking and leaping over and under the black and slimy cephalopods.

The small but multitude of teeth were visible as a squid trying to fling itself around my face, and I quickly ducked, letting it fly splat into the thick mast. It writhed as it bit into the wood.

I briefly wondered where Leo was, why Piper was taking so long in the loo, before a huge shadow looked over the ship. I chucked the last of the squid on my side of the deck over board, before turning to the starboard side to look at the new visitor.

"Poseidon's smelly underpants, what the Hades is that?"

It was huge version of the squid/kraken, but with more green, and little sharp teeth lining it's tentacles.

Annabeth came up beside me to observe the creature.

"A tiger, Seaweed Brian. It's the baby krakens mother, idiot." she deadpanned. She looked disbelievingly at me and muttered, "Vlacas."

"Thanks."

She leaned back, her arm above her head, and a golden mist formed in her grip. She bounded forward on the now-huge deck, and threw it at the beast, the golden mist becoming an Imperial Golden spear as it flew, plunging deep into the creatures soft skin.

The creature screeched in a rough squelching sound, its eyes narrowing in madness and pain. A long tentacle came whipping out, driving straight into Annabeth's stomach, and forcefully shoving her into the mast. She slumped to the floor, slightly winded but otherwise fine from the usually-back-breaking move. I breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that she had the Achilles curse.

"Hey, Slime Head!" I yelled, trying to gain its attention as it attempted to knock Annabeth down again and she sliced through the end of the tentacle with a knife.

Its attention moved, and it squirmed. I saw the surrounding water become black and begin to churn. Hazel flirted through my mind and I really hoped she was too asleep to become seasick. It must have released some ink, and I could only imagine what Leo would do once he found the black ring that would line the ship.

Two thin tentacles came at me and tried to puncture me, but hit my rock-like skin and bounced off harmlessly, flying past my shoulders. I took that opportunity to click riptide, and slide it through the tentacles.

Piper chose that moment to walk on deck, and stared at the monster.

"Don't just stand there! Do something!" I yelled, running from a tentacle as the Kraken used another to fight Annabeth, trying to encircle her and lift her off the ground. She threw her arm at the mast close behind her and hauled the dagger that had punctured it out of the wood, and began to slash repeatedly at the limb, causing it to recoil.

Piper broke out of her daze and rushed to help, taking off Zethe's sword that was attached to her hip, and cutting cleanly through the limb chasing after me. The unattached appendage wriggled on the floor, before exploding into dust.

"Oi, ugly!" yelled Piper, trying to distract the monster from Annabeth. It provoked the strongest reaction from it so far, and I figured that squid were the vain type.

It looked at her dead in the eye, and she continued to speak.

"You don't want to attack the ship. You think that we are fine passing through your territory."

"We killed her kids, Piper. You're gonna have to do better than that!" I yelled, slicing up another tentacle from the end up, pieces falling like mouldy cucumber slices, before exploding into pixie dust.

"I know, I know!" came her indignant reply. "I could kinda force her to be... calm!" She continued, punctuating her last word with a satisfying stab through a thick tentacle, dust pouring out of the wound.

"But I'd have to be touching her!"

I shook my head, dodging a well aimed spurt of ink. "There's little teeth lining her limbs; you'd cut yourself even if she was dead!"

"You're going to have to amp up the charmspeak, Pipes!" yelled Annabeth from the other side of the deck, where a sneaky appendage had wrapped itself around the ship. She ran to our side, and the tentacles followed her, lying taught as they reached the end of their length.

"Cut it!" screamed Annabeth.

We whirled into action, cutting trough the multitude of limbs chasing Annabeth. The Kraken screeched in pain, and heaved two large tentacles out of the water. They must have been the last ones, because the mother began to shake, rocking the boat with it.

"Stop!" yelled Piper, her charmspeak much stronger this time. The beast halted, looking at her with barely contained fury. "You don't care about your children. You just want to find another boat, and eat that one instead."

The Kraken deflated, as if contemplating her words, and we all stilled, not wanting to startle the beast. Of course that's the moment Leo decided to stroll on deck.

"HOLY MOTHER OF ZEUS!"

The fonzies he held in his grip burst into flames.

And the the Kraken seemed to have a panic attack. The tentacles whipped through the air, leaving everyone to jump or duck under the frenzied limbs. I ducked and whipped Riptide above my head, going for a lucky hit. The celestial bronze sunk into the flesh, and the rest of the limb tore the sword out of my grip, and over into the sea.

"No!"

I cursed in my head, before realising that the wound I had inflicted left one uninjured tentacle left, and it was currently hurtling at me. I froze, the huge limb coming at me. I had no sword to defend myself.

"PERCY!"

Annabeth's scream tore through the night, echoed by the churning, black waves. I jolted our if my panic, and I raised my hands in front of my head as a last ditch effort, with there being to place or time for me to run or duck. I braced myself to be ripped through the wooden edge and tumble into the sea. At least I'd be stronger there.

But the blow never came.

I peeked through my scrunched shut eyes, and saw the tentacle quivering, hovering it the air. I leaned round, and saw that the Kraken still had much more reach.

"What?"

Annabeth gasped.

"Telekinesis! Oh my gods, Percy! You're a telekinetic!"

My eyes widened. I then grinned, and pushed my arms back, almost feeling the weight of the Kraken. Said monster moved away from the ship, and the tentacles followed. I then slowly began to force my splayed hands together, and the Kraken began I squirm. I finally clasped my fingers, and the vibrating monster combusted, exploding dust everywhere.

"That's new."

Leo's statement drew everyone's attention, and well all began to brush off the dust that had settled in our clothes.

"You guys must smell real bad. That had to be a record, right. A monster within, what? Three minutes?"

We all glared at him.

"What? S'not me, I was below." he raised his hands in defence, his shoulders raising and an innocent look pasted on his face.

-sorry this is kinda a filler chapter, but next time we'll be taking a peek into the wizards side. I won't be able to post for a while because I have a week of tests, but I hope these chapters make up for it!

Thank you for your support!