Chapter 9 (Percy) The Hydra

"Please, Percy. I don't want to talk about it." Annabeth said. We were sitting in a Half-Blood hideout that was created by Luke, Thalia, Adrian and her. She was still crying silently. I wanted to say something to make her feel better but I didn't have any thing in mind. The realisation that Adrian was being possessed by Kronos was even worse than getting the news that he was dead. Adrian's eyes were not golden. I think that Adrian is still fighting Kronos inside. Otherwise, he would have just killed us.

Tyson was outside, calling for doughnuts. I leaned over closer to Annabeth.

"Will Luke and Adrian look here?"

She shook her head. "A- Adrian," She choked on his name. "won't look here. He's no more and Luke probably forgot about this place. I doubt he even cares about this place, even if he remembered."

I felt like this was the right time to ask a few more questions.

"What did Luke mean when he said that Thalia would on his side?"

"He's wrong."

"You don't sound sure."

She glared at me. "You and Thalia are so alike. You're both powerful in your own way. I think that's why Adrian liked you when you first arrived at camp. You probably reminded him of Thalia."

I remembered what she told me during our quest last year. "You said that Adrian had a crush on Thalia."

She nodded. "He liked the fact that she wasn't one of those really female girls. He liked how she fought more furiously than Luke. That's where he got a lot of his fighting skills. He learned them from Thalia."

I was curious to hear more but Tyson interrupted us. He crawled in through the door. He raised a box of doughnuts to show us. "Look. I found doughnuts."

Annabeth looked at it suspiciously. "Doughnuts in the wild?"

Tyson nodded earnestly. "Yes. Monster Doughnut Shop. I can show you." He crawled back out again.

Annabeth stood up. "We'd better follow him."

I grabbed my bag and Riptide and followed her outside.

"This isn't good. This could be a trap." Said Annabeth. We were crouching behind some trees. "This is probably a nest for monsters."

I sighed. "Annabeth, this is a chain. We've got them in New York."

"I know that but don't you think it's strange that one pops up straight after you told Tyson to go find some doughnuts?"

Tyson whimpered. He started eating doughnuts. He was getting icing all over his face.

Annabeth grimaced at the sign. Suddenly, she tensed.

"No – sudden – movements."

"What?"

Then I heard it. A rustling of leaves behind us. We turned around slowly and before us was The Hydra. The monsters heads moved around, tearing at a canvas. It was our duffel bags. The monster had been to our campsite which meant that it had been following us around. The Hydra didn't seem to have noticed us until Tyson got nervous and stepped back onto a twig. Immediately, all of the Hydra's seven heads swivelled and looked at us. It spat acid at us.

"Scatter!" yelled Annabeth. I leapt to one side as an arc of Hydra acid sailed over my shoulder and hitting a tree. The tree hissed and began to disintegrate. Tyson ran towards the Hydra and punched its faces.

"No hitting my friends!" he bellowed. One of the heads spat acid at him. Tyson jumped aside.

"What's that noise?!" I yelled over the fighting. It sounded like a steam train.

"Over there!" screamed Annabeth. She was pointing at a ship with cannons on its side. On board the ship, we saw a familiar person. It was Clarisse. She pointed in our direction and a bunch of men loaded the cannons.

The ship fired.

"Get down!" I yelled. Annabeth and Tyson threw themselves down onto the ground. The Hydra didn't. It was staring at the ship. The Hydra exploded. We waited for the steam to clear before getting up. Clarisse was looking down at us, sneering.

"Get on board," She said. "and I'll decide what to do with you later. For now, consider yourselves as guests."