Chapter Two
"You know," Percy Jackson said, "I never thought we'd be attacked by chainsaws."
The Argo II had been cruising through the skies, nothing really horrible going on- which was surprising, considering Mother Earth was days from waking- when these things, which were literally birds with the heads of chainsaws, had come like a typhoon over the sides.
"Neither did I!" Called Leo Valdez, "But everything is usually a surprise to me!"
Percy sliced and diced, the monsters turning into golden dust, as monsters did when they were sent back to Tartarus.
One revved it's head and threw itself at Nico di Angelo, who Shadow Traveled out of the way, appearing right behind it and slicing it in half.
Percy nodded to him and ran across the deck towards Jason Grace, who was attempting to hold two back with wind.
Percy sliced through the chainsaw monsters, and grinned at Jason.
"You idiot, Grace."
"Hey, it was working."
"Not really. I suggest your sword."
Jason nodded, taking the drachma out of his pocket and flipping it. Mid-air, it transformed into a golden sword.
The monsters reared back, hissing things to one and other.
"Gold-"
"-symbol of the Pharaoh-"
-House of Life, probably-"
Then they charged Jason and Percy, both of them slicing straight through. When Jason's sword touched them, they exploded- and not the normal explosion monsters have. They blew up, the pieces glowing, but crumbling as soon as they hit the deck.
Percy and Jason high-fived, the monsters gone.
…
Downstairs, the girls were having an easier time.
Hazel was slicing through them easily with her Imperial Gold sword, Annabeth doing quite well with the bone sword she'd gotten in Tartarus. Piper was doing the same with her knife.
In minutes, the strange chainsaw-headed monsters were down, and they were coming up the stairs.
The boys seemed to have done well, an eagle diving and transforming into Frank.
"So..." Percy turned to Annabeth, "Any idea what those were?"
Annabeth shook her head.
"No." She said, "I haven't seen, or heard of, monsters like that."
Percy blinked.
"That's weird." He said.
"It's probably Gaea messing with us." Frank said, "Throwing monsters on us we don't know of."
"But the gold definitely did something." Jason said, then looked at Hazel, "Right?"
"Yeah..."
Hazel held out her spatha and looked at it.
"There's definitely something about gold they don't like." She concluded.
"Yeah." Percy said, "But what?"
"Guys.." Leo said from his Captain's spot. "There's someone coming."
The group ran over to the right side of the boat and looked over.
There was a giant eagle flying towards them, but it wasn't just any lion.
This lion had the wings and front body of an eagle- which were going about a thousand miles per hour-, with horse legs and was carrying a flying.. Canoe?
But there were 2 people in it, and they were headed straight for the Argo II.
…
It was strange that Uncle Amos had called them out for this.
He'd said that there had been a large ship moving through the Mediterranean for about a week, and that it sent out a strong magical signal. It wasn't one of the House's, so he wanted Carter and Sadie to check it out.
That's a great idea! Send your 15 year old nephew and 13 year old niece to check out what could possibly be a ship for Chaos.
But, hey. At least he had faith in them.
Freak was awkward flying over the ocean.
Uncle Amos had said to use the Duat, but only until you are just in view.
The thing was, Freak had never flown over large bodies of water before. He seemed scared he was going to drop them.
"It's alright, buddy." Carter assured him.
"That's the fanciest ship I've ever seen.." Sadie mumbled.
Carter stood to get a better look.
The ship was- literally- a Greek warship.
It was a half-wooden, half-metal ship, a giant statue sticking out the back like some sort of growth. There were smoke stacks, and Carter could feel the radar waves shooting out and over them, the boat shuddering every time.
There was a group of people standing at the edge, looking at them.
At first, Cater wondered if they were hostile.
Then, he realized that every Chaos force both in this Realm and in the Duat knew what they looked like and how they traveled, so they probably would've attacked by now.
Next, he recognized someone.
"Percy...?" He whispered, then shouted, "PERCY JACKSON, IS THAT YOU?"
The black-haired figure stiffened, and the others raised weapons, then he relaxed and shouted,
"CATER KANE?"
Carter called.
"YEP!"
Percy turned back and quickly talked to another, then waved him down.
"Alright, Freak, land us on the deck."
The griffin got too exited and sped towards the boat.
"Easy!" Percy called.
The griffin tilted his head, squawking.
"No, no. We won't hurt you. Just slow down, and easy 'em down."
Freak, surprisingly, listened, and set them down nicely.
Percy came right over.
Carter instantly noticed the difference.
In the month since he'd met Percy, it seemed he'd been through a lot.
He looked like he'd been to the edge of Chaos- sadly, Cater spoke from experience- and it had not been kind to him. Despite his warm smile, his eyes seemed sad and broken.
They seemed lost.
"Dude," He said, "you run all the way to the middle of the Mediterranean, just to see me? I'm flattered!"
Carter smirked.
"Oh yeah." He said, "I so came all the way out here to see the guy who showed me up with his awesome water magic. Or whatever it was that you did."
"You know this guy?" Asked a blond guy, coming up.
He was tall, about an inch more that Percy, his blond hair cropped, a scar on his top lip. His features were chissled, reminding Carter of the statues of Ramesses the Great he'd seen during his first duel, one he'd had with Sadie, at Luxor.
"Yeah." Percy said, "He got eaten by a crocodile, I made it throw him up, he punched me with some magic fist, we tried to kill each other, then we worked together and killed the croc together."
Carter grinned.
"Good times."
"You got eaten by a crocodile?" Asked an Asian guy, coming over, "Dude, that does not sound fun."
"It wasn't." Carter admitted, "I was going to punch my way out-"
"You got super strength or something?" Asked the blond.
"No." Carter said blandly, "It was a spell."
"Spell?"
A girl, dark-skinned, golden-eyed came over.
"Are you a servant of Hecate?" She asked.
"No." Carter said, "I'm a magician for the House of Life."
There was a gasp from the blond.
"What?" Carter asked.
"Reyna sometimes talked about a House of Life." He said, "What exactly do you guys do?"
"Well." Sadie said loudly, cutting in, probably annoyed by being ignored, "We restore order to Ma'at. Which is, like, this world. Earth, I guess. It's the force of Order really. At the moment, we're facing the problem of Chaos itself waking. We've got a few days, maybe. What we should be doing is gathering our troops that haven't been destroyed by Apophis' forces. But we were sent out here to figure out what a ship of this magnitude that is not ours was doing so close to the First Nome is doing out here. You guys obviously aren't trying to kill us, and you-" She pointed to Percy, "-obviously know my knobhead of a brother, so, let me ask, who are you?"
A girl came forward.
She was beautiful in the way that she looked like she wanted to kill him.
So basically, she was just like Zia.
But she did not look like Zia.
Her skin was a pretty tan colour, her hair honey blond and curly. She was exactly what Carter thought a stereotypical California girl would look like.
Except for the eyes.
Her eyes were a pretty grey colour. Calculating, but pretty.
"We're demi-gods." She said, "You should know that, Sadie."
"Well excuse me if I didn't see you."
The girl rolled her eyes.
"We're on our way to Greece to stop Gaea from rising."
"At the same time that Apophis is rising." Sadie said.
Silence issued.
"Well..." Said another boy, Latino, curly haired, wired-looking, "We shouldn't loose hope, right? Maybe it's not connected at all."
"I don't think so." Sadie said, "There has to be some sort of connection, right? After all, we were so close together the whole time. You guys on Long Island, us in Brooklyn."
"Actually," The Asian spoke up, "there's another Camp, Camp Jupiter, in San Francisco-"
"We have a Nome there, too." Sadie went on, "So one way or another, there has to be something connected. I don't know what it is, but it worries m-"
The boat rocked.
The Latino kid rocketed to the controls.
"Oh gods..." He whispered, "This isn't good."
"What?" Percy asked.
"We've got something big on our hands. Polybotes. And he's angry."
…
Back by popular demand!
Yeah.
I know where I'm going with this this time.
Holla!
