That first chapter was painful to write. I hate pairing up Percy and Rachel but I had no other choice. Hope you guys enjoy this one hehe I'm a little rusty, I got to say. I haven't written in a loooong time.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS

I let Becky—I mean Beckendorf lead the way. We slowly made our way through the ship, quickly and quietly. With haste, just like what we practiced in the abandoned ships that were left out in the docks of New York.

I caught my breath as Beckendorf put a hand on my chest to stop me.

He pointed upwards and put a hand on his ear. He was signaling me to listen.

"I don't bloody care what your stinkin' nose says you dimwit!" what I suppose what was a telkhine talking. "The bloody last time you smelled what you thought was a 'half-blood', it was a stinkin' meat loaf sandwich!"

"I—I'm sorry, boss. I confuse the two a lot. But I swear, I smell a half-blood this time!" another telkhine spoke up.

"Just get on with your job! And when you have time, please get your brain back on board!"

The other telkhine continued to convince his boss to believe him, but as far as I can tell, he was losing his trust in every word he spoke. Beckendorf and I headed downstairs, descending as quietly as we could. Their voices faded and I sighed in relief.

Beckendorf whispered 'engine room' as we came up to a metal hatch. It was locked, which is always a disappointment and happens all the time in movies when the heroes try to break in the enemy's hideout. Although, those movies don't contain a son of Hephaestus with a limited supply of chain cutters.

"As expected," I whispered, as he split the bolts effortlessly. Inside the engine room were turbines , pressure gauges and computer terminals. And of course another telkhine hunched over a console, breathing huffs of hot air and possibly killing time by doing everything in the world except his job.

I gritted my teeth as I glared at his black, sleek fur and claws almost a foot long. I stepped forward without hesitation. Immediately, he froze and sniffed the air. He leapt to the big emergency alarm button, but Beckendorf blocked him, threatening with a celestial bronze dagger. As he slightly staggered backwards, I sliced through his body before he could regain himself.

"One down," Beckendorf said, "About possibly five thousand to go." He handed me a jar of thick green liquid. Greek fire, one of the most dangerous magical substances in the world. He tossed me a mortal object too, which was an essential demigod tool—duct tape.

"Let's get working, the heat's killing me."

The more time we spent in the room, the more sweat we released. Using my locating instincts we were as 40.19 degrees North, 71.90 degrees West, which meant, we're going to reach New York Harbor by dawn. I was attaching a second jar to the control panels when I heard pounding footsteps. I started to hesitate. I could tell by the footsteps, there are a handful of monsters coming our way. I bit back a swear.

My eyes caught Beckendorf's.

"I need a lot more time," he immediately said. "I still have to wire the receiver and prime the charges. It could take at least ten minutes."

"I'll meet you at the rendezvous point," I spoke through my clenched teeth. The heat was really getting to my head. I headed out the door, but Beckendorf grabbed my arm.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he stopped me. "What the heck are you doing?"

"I'll distract them."

"There's too many of them, Perce," he warned. I pulled my arm away.

"We have to take chances from this point on. Wish me luck."

I didn't give him a chance to stop me again. I uncapped Riptide and slipped outside.

As I charged through the hallway, I gripped Riptide with both hands, leaning it sideways. It sliced through all the telkhines lined up before they could even notice. When the hallway ended I sprinted up the stairs. One telkhine I allowed to get away so he can raise the alarm for all the monsters to have their attention on me and not on the engine room.

I bursted into the deck. I kept running until I froze in front of the promenade, a big shopping mall. A huge crab crowded over a decent looking fountain. I immediately recalled to my memory with Paul. We were at Montauk and he had taken me crabbing. They had a clink on their armor, right in the middle of their belly.

Riptide shone dimly. Ironically like my brain is right now. The problem was getting below the crab. It was huge. I had no time to think though.

I sidestepped as it lunged to me with his pincers. I glared into his black beady eyes and his foaming mouth. I'm not a girl, but even I have to say I'm disgusted.

"Mr. Krabbs, do you mind flipping upside down?" I asked with a slightly taunting tone in my voice. "Maybe I could give you a belly rub or something."

"Intruder!" a voice shouted. Monsters were crawling out of nowhere. I had no plan in particular to distract this many monsters. I had to fight at some point.

As far as buying time, I'm failing at it. I'm being slowly pinned down to the center of the ship. I had to think up of something. Fast.

I parried as the creature attacked me again. Then, I got it. I ran away as fast as I could from the monster crab. It hurried after me. As it reached its full speed, I pressed my heel into the hardwood floor to stop myself and ran towards the crab.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" I screamed my battle cry as I slid on my tailbone (ouch) with Riptide raised up. A wave of relief flowed over me as the blade sliced through the belly like butter. The monster disintegrated into dust.

I had no time to admire my win. Monsters were running to me, but I turned and charged up the upper deck. Dracaenae were slithering on my path trying to block me from getting any further. I dodged them, I had to continue on to gain some time for Beckendorf to get ready.

"Get him!" one of them bellowed. "Bring him to Kronos!"

I leaned backwards as an arrow whizzed past me, slightly grazing my cheek. As I ran up another stairwell, a kid charged at me. He looked like he just came from a nap, his armor barely on. He drew his sword and yelled, "Kronos". I bit my lip as I noticed that he sounded more scared than angry. He was the same age as I was when I first came to Camp Half-Blood.

I felt immediate pity for him. He didn't deserve this. No demigod did. Kronos was using him just like that jerk, Luke. I stepped closer to grab his wrist and slammed it against the wall. His sword fell and I caught it. I pressed the blade slightly against his bare neck. He whimpered.

"If you want to live, kid," I said with authority. "get out of here now. Tell the other demigods." I shoved him down the stairs and I continued on. I mentally slapped myself on the head. That alone could jeopardize the whole plan. But there was no point on clinging on the past. What was done was done. I had to keep going.

I finally reached the main deck. I sucked in the fresh sea air. I felt triumph as I saw our emergency rendezvous, the helipad just up another flight of stairs. If we had any luck left, Beckendorf would meet me up there, then we'd dive straight into the sea. My powers would help with our landing. But something seemed off. The whole deck was deserted. I walked slowly around until a familiar voice stopped me.

"You're late, Percy."