Hey, uh, a few things before you read this.
Firstly, I had a hard time describing the Argo II. I've tried my best and described it the way I saw it. If it's a lot different from the way you imagined it, I'm sorry.
Secondly, any comments, corrections and suggestions or any other kinds of review are welcome.
Thirdly, all the Percico fans, hang in there.
PERCY:
He and Annabeth stood on the deck looking at the ocean, waves crashing on the Argo II.
Leo was fiddling with the Archimedes Sphere while Hazel and Piper were practicing sword fighting. Jason and Frank were in the mess hall.
Things were peaceful. Percy could almost imagine that this was a romantic cruise. Until Festus blew out smoke.
Percy had no idea what they were going to do when they reached Greece. There was no possible way that seven demigods could stop Gaia from rising. How could they defeat the earth itself?
They had barely escaped Tartarus, letting Bob and Damasen die for them.
Percy just couldn't let that fact go. All the havoc and pain and terror Gaia had caused made him mad beyond measure. He was in a rage. He wanted to tear Gaia to pieces. He hadn't been this mad since he had thought The Minotaur had killed his mother. He was confused about the way they were supposed to defeat Gaia when they didn't even know what she planned to do. He was worried about Annabeth.
She had been distant ever since she woke him up. Her face was pale and her hair wasn't as gorgeous as usual. But Percy couldn't help but notice how exceptionally beautiful she still looked. How brave and independent and smart she was, always awed him. It filled his heart with happiness and love and hope.
Percy should've learnt that a demigod shouldn't have too many good thoughts together. It kinda jinxed the whole atmosphere.
Because right then, Hazel asked, "Uh, guys, not to worry you or anything but what in the name of Hades is that?"
Percy and Annabeth turned to look at Hazel and traced her finger which was pointing towards a dark shadow in the sky.
"Maybe I should get Jason, he'd know", Piper suggested and rushed inside to get Frank and Jason.
As the shadow got closer, Percy noticed Annabeth's eye brows draw in together.
"It's gleaming", Annabeth pointed out.
Just then Piper rushed on to the deck with Jason, Frank and Leo.
"Holy Heph- are those birds?", he asked squinting at the gleaming, now approaching towards them, mass.
"I have a bad feeling about this", Jason muttered, "Take cover!"
Every one rushed inside the control room and looked out the glass panel to see that they had gotten inside just in time.
There were bronze arrow heads stuck to the wooden deck of the Argo II.
"Arrow Heads?", Frank asked.
"No!", Annabeth exclaimed. "Look closely"
And Percy did. At first glance those looked like arrow heads, but after a closer look those looked like bronze feathers.
"Feather shooting bronze birds?", Leo asked scratching his head, "They're bloody destroying my ship!"
"Metallic birds which shoot feathers", Percy observed looking at the flock that was now getting closer. "With golden beaks. Where have I read about them?"
"Stymphalian Birds", Annabeth declared, "Flesh eating metallic feather shooting birds"
"I've heard about them", Percy said recalling one of his adventures with Clarisse and a chariot race that seemed a lifetime ago, "Aren't they, uh, supposed to be pets of Ares?"
The last two times he had encountered them, they either shot feathers or tried to eat them alive. This time, apparently because they were so close to the Ancient Lands, they would do both.
Everybody looked at Frank.
"Uh, don't look at me", Frank said shrugging, "I've seen my father just a couple of times. We didn't have time to talk about his flesh eating pets"
"Uh, they're getting really close", Hazel warned.
Everybody now looked at Annabeth. The smartest and the most logical of them all.
"Heracles defeated them", she said after a long time, "Well, most of them. The others flew away, I think"
"Well, of course he did. We're unlikely to come across anything he didn't defeat", Percy replied rolling his eyes. This jerk Heracles was everywhere.
"Well lucky then that we have our own Heracles, huh?", said Leo, thumping Jason on his back. Jason winced.
"How were they defeated?", he asked Annabeth, "Some son if Jupiter thing?"
"Not really", Annabeth replied, her grey eyes stormy again, her eye brows knitted together. Percy thought she looked very attractive while planning to kill flesh eating birds.
The birds had now settled the deck, all of them staring at the glass panel of the control room with their large black beady eyes. There were around a hundred of them. The birds were very ugly and huge with metallic feathers all over their body with large golden beaks. They could easily be assumed as automatons.
"Heracles scared them with a rattle given to him by Athena", Annabeth said, pacing urgently now, "A rattle designed by Hephaestus especially for this occasion"
"And they just flew away into the sunset?", Leo asked his hands already reaching into his belt, "That easy?"
"No, he shot as much of them as he could to scare them and they never returned to that land", Annabeth explained.
"Well, we have a child of Hephaestus who'll build us the special rattle", Piper noted.
"Great, now I'm the toymaker", Leo said hanging his head low and fidgeting with stuff from his belt.
"And we have an archer too", Hazel said putting an arm around Frank.
"Uh, I'm not sure I'll be able to shoot too many of them", Frank replied awkwardly.
"You're all we've got, buddy", Percy replied patting Frank on the back. The guy was huge now, with a well chiselled body.
"So I'm just gonna sit here and hope these birds don't break the glass", Percy added. It felt good to not fight for a while.
The birds seemed to be pecking the deck and making holes in the floorboard. Some seemed to be pooping around here and there. Others were staring at the control room glass intently as if deciding how to best break it.
"Oh, and their poop is really toxic", Annabeth remembered.
"We won't eat it", Percy answered seriously.
"Even the smell, you dummy", Annabeth replied playfully smacking his head.
"Well", Piper started, "doesn't it seem too easy? Everything else we've faced before has been way more difficult"
"Well, a guy could get used to this easy and luxurious life style", Leo answered and in his hand was a rattle.
It was silver from the outside, with little bronze strips that interlocked with each other.
"Papa is done", Leo announced, "Let's see what you got, brother", he handed the rattle to Jason.
Jason shook the rattle and it made the irritating sound children's rattle made.
"You sure this going to work, Wise Girl", Percy asked Annabeth, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes.
"It should. If this doesn't, I don't know what would.", Annabeth replied.
Jason walked to the door, with his gladius in one hand and the rattle in the other and unlocked it. "Okay, so, see you later, I guess"
He walked out and shook the rattle.
And Percy decided it was the worst thing he could've done.
The birds, instead of flying away, flew directly at Jason, who slew the nearest ones.
This stopped the other birds, but only for a while. They shot their metallic arrows and Jason tried to deflect them but a lot of them buried themselves into his arm and legs.
"Jason!", Piper shouted and opened the door.
"Go away, you ugly chickens", she screamed at the birds. A few of them looked dazed and fell into the water. But then they flew back up onto the deck and shot their feathers at Piper.
Frank shot at the birds and a few of them turned to dust but the birds were quick.
Jason rolled to where Piper was standing, grabbed her by the waist and flew back into the control room. The gust of wind Jason had let out disbalanced a lot of the birds who flew into the wrong direction and so did the feathers.
Frank shut the door and moved Piper carefully from on top Jason.
Annabeth quickly got out a piece of ambrosia and stuffed it into Jason's mouth, while Frank plucked the feathers from his body.
Jason moaned.
"It should've worked!", Leo exclaimed, kneeling beside Jason, who moaned again.
Percy turned to look at the dock where it seemed that more had gathered. He raised his hand and called the sea to him. He felt a slight tug at his navel as a huge wave rose and darkened the deck.
"Uh, guys?", Percy called, "You might want to hold on to something"
And before Leo could protest about destroying his ship, Percy brought the tide down on the deck. The ship lurched forward and people screamed but Percy couldn't tell who it was.
As the tide went back to the ocean, Percy realized it had been futile. Except that the tide had cleaned all the toxic poop.
The birds still stood on the deck firmly, tilting their heads and staring at Percy as if devising a special plan just to kill Percy.
"I think you just got them angrier", Hazel noted.
But it should've worked! How could those thick headed birds still be firmly planted on the deck?
"But why didn't the rattle work?", Leo asked tugging at his hair in exasperation.
"Because they're thick headed, stupid, metallic birds", Percy replied, irritated.
At that, Piper's eyes lit up. "Give me the damn rattle", she told Jason, who weakly handed over the rattled while Annabeth checked his wounds.
Piper picked up the rattle and touched it to her lips. "May this be the most beautiful sound you've heard", she whispered lightly, and handed the rattle to Percy.
Percy shook the rattle and the rattle chimed. The rattle didn't rattle. It chimed the most beautiful melody. The sound was enchanting, like the sound could move in one direction and everyone would just follow it without reason. It reminded Percy of a childhood story about the piper who played his pipes and lead the mice away from a city they had been infesting.
And then Annabeth started ordering everyone around.
"Frank, get ready with your bow. You'll have to be very quick and shoot as many of those birds as you can"
"Piper and Hazel, look after Jason's wounds and check for poisoning"
"Percy, take the rattle and you'll be going out and shaking it at the birds and Frank will be shooting them down"
"Leo, stay ready. Shoot at them if you can, and we'll take off into the air"
Percy and Frank unlocked the door. "On the count of three", Percy told Frank who just grunted in answer.
"One. Two. Three!", Percy announced and threw the door open.
The birds instantly flew towards them to attack, but before they or any of their feathers could reach them, Percy shook the rattle.
The beautiful sound the rattle made turned the metal feathers into real, soft feathers and was intolerable for the birds. They screeched a strange metallic clang and flew away, somewhere south, Percy could tell.
But only some got away. Leo raised the ship into the air and Frank shot most of them, which turned into dust.
The others came out on the deck and Annabeth hugged Percy. Piper was supporting Jason and Hazel kissed Frank.
Leo just looked out into the ocean below and twisted a crystal in his hand, his eyes very sad.
"You guys should go rest, I'd keep a lookout for more flesh eating ugly chicken and other usual stuff", he suggested.
"I'll stay with you", Hazel replied, walking upto Leo and putting an arm around him.
"Me too", Piper added, walking to Leo and kissing his cheek.
Percy looked at Annabeth who still looked pale and had bags under eyes. He wondered if she had slept at all, last night.
He grabbed some sandwiches from the kitchen and led Annabeth to her cabin.
Her cabin had notes and diagrams and other stuff Percy didn't understand stuck on the walls. He knew she missed Dedalus's laptop a lot. It was her treasure and probably had a lot of priceless ideas and inventions. He knew it hurt her to lose it. He sat in the bed, leaning on the wall and Annabeth slept with her head on his lap.
ANNABETH:
She closed her eyes but she could feel Percy still tense. She didn't know what they were doing or what they were supposed to do anymore. Tartarus had hurt them and it seemed like life had little meaning anymore.
Slowly, she fell unconscious.
She dreamt of a forest. She walked deeper into it and found it tents set up, guarded by wolves and owls. She could hear voices and a particular voice she heard from one of the tents caught her attention and drew her towards the tent.
She slipped into the tent quietly, which was enormous from the inside.
Two girls sat inside, both of nearly the same age. Around sixteen. One of them just one day less than sixteen.
"Thalia", she whispered but the girls didn't hear her.
She went closer to get a better look.
Thalia's hair was still short and black and spiky. There was an elegant silver circlet on her head. She looked very sad.
"Don't torture yourself, Thalia", the other girl told Thalia, her hand on her arm. "There's no point anymore"
"I don't know what's happening, Phoebe", Thalia said, her voice unsteady. Annabeth had never heard Thalia like this. She always saw her as a brave and ferocious person.
"I haven't felt like this since before Lady Artemis asked me to join the hunters", Thalia replied biting her lip.
Somebody touched Annabeth's shoulder and she screamed, but nobody heard her.
She turned to find Luke.
"Hey", he said sadly. "This was what I was talking about".