𝑨𝑪𝑻 𝑶𝑵𝑬 ━ 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑬

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐓, 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐂𝐊 𝐎𝐍 𝐀 𝐁𝐎𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐎𝐑 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 stuck on a boat with your enemy and your friends in the middle of nowhere, Iris wished her thoughts were going to get answered soon. Iris hadn't thought that Luke would turn up out of nowhere on their journey to save camp and Thalia. But she was standing in front of Luke who was pointing to the golden sarcophagus.

The box creeped her out, but you weren't going to see it on her face, Iris was determined not to show it. "So?" Percy demanded seeming just the lightest amount of creepiness slowly making its way up his back."What's so special..."

Then it hit him, what might be inside the sarcophagus. The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees in just a blink of an eye. "Whoa, you don't mean—"

"He is re-forming," Luke said. "Little by little, we're calling his life force out of the pit. With every recruit who pledges our cause, another small piece appears—"

"That's disgusting!" Annabeth and Iris said out loud. How did I get myself into this shithole? Thought Iris as she grunted in annoyance.

Luke sneered at Annabeth. "Your mother was born from Zeus's split skull, Annabeth. I wouldn't talk. Soon there will be enough of the titan lord so that we can make him whole again. We will piece together a new body for him, a work worthy of the forges of Hephaestus."

"You're insane," Annabeth said.

"Join us and you'll be rewarded. We have powerful friends, sponsors rich enough to buy this cruise ship and much more. Percy, your mother will never have to work again. You can buy her a mansion. You can have power, fame—whatever you want, you can realize your dream of being an architect. You can build a monument to last a thousand years. A temple to the lords of the next age!"

"Go to Tartarus," she said, to be honest Iris was really proud of her in that exact moment. Luke sighed. "A shame."

He picked up something that looked like a TV remote and pressed a red button. Within seconds the door of the stateroom opened and two uniformed crew members came in, armed with nightsticks. They had the same glassy-eyed look as the other mortals they've seen, but Iris had a feeling this wouldn't make them any less dangerous in a fight.

"Ah, good, security," Luke said, "I'm afraid we have some stowaways."

"Yes, sir," they said dreamily.

Luke turned to Oreius. "It's time to feed the Aethiopian drakon. Take these fools below and show them how it's done." Oreius grinned stupidly. "Hehe! Hehe!"

"Let me go, too," Agrius grumbled. "My brother is worthless. That Cyclops—"

"Is no threat," Luke said. He glanced back at the golden casket, as if something were troubling him. "Agrius, stay here. We have important matters to discuss."

"But—"

"Oreius, don't fail me. Stay in the hold to make sure the drakon is properly fed." Oreius prodded them with his javelin and herded us out of the stateroom, followed by the two human security guards.

As they walked down the corridor with Orieus's javelin poking them constantly in the back, Percy thought about what Luke had said—that the bear twins together were a match for Tyson's strength, but what would happen if they were separated?

They exited the corridor amidships and walked across an open deck lined with lifeboats. Percy knew the ship well enough to realize this would be their last look at sunlight. Once they got to the other side, they'd take the elevator down into the hold, and that would be it.

Percy looked at Tyson and said, "Now."

Thank the gods, he understood, thought Percy. He turned and smacked Oreius thirty feet backward into the swimming pool, right into the middle of the zombie tourist family. "Ah!" the kids yelled in unison. "We are not having a blast in the pool!"

One of the security guards drew his nightstick, but Annabeth knocked the wind out of him with a well-placed kick. The other guard ran for the nearest alarm box. "Stop him!" Annabeth yelled, but it was too late.

Just before Percy banged him on head with a deck chair, he hit the alarm. Red lights flashed and the sirens wailed loudly, they were in some deep shit. "Lifeboat!" Iris yelled, quickly thinking of their quickest way out. They all ran for the nearest one.

By the time they got the cover off, monsters and more security men were swarming the deck, pushing aside tourists and waiters with trays of tropical drinks. A guy in Greek armor drew his sword and charged, but slipped in a puddle of spilled piña colada, which by the way was a huge waste if Iris would have asked Aphrodite. Laistrygonian archers assembled on the deck above us, notching arrows in their enormous bows.

"How do you launch this thing?" screamed Annabeth.

A hellhound leaped at Percy, but Tyson slammed it aside with a fire extinguisher. "Get in!" Percy yelled. He uncapped Riptide and slashed the first volley of arrows out of the air. Any second we would be overwhelmed.

The lifeboat was hanging over the side of the ship, high above the water. Annabeth, Iris and Tyson were having no luck with the release pulley. Percy jumped in beside them."Hold on!" He yelled, and he did the thing Iris was dreading, he cut the ropes.

𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄, 𝐀𝐒 a shower of arrows whistled over their heads while they free-fell toward the ocean, oh gods! Thought Iris."Thermos!" Percy screamed as they hurtled toward the water. "What the hell?" Iris said, thinking Percy had lost his mind. She was holding on to the boat straps, her brown hair flying straight up like a torch.

But Tyson understood. He managed to open his duffel bag and take out Hermes's magical thermos without losing his grip on it or the boat. Arrows and javelins whistled past them, Iris was holding on to her dear life, quite literally. Percy grabbed the thermos and hoped he was doing the right thing. "Hang on!"

"I am hanging on!" Annabeth and Iris yelled, sarcasm dripping from both lips.

"Tighter!"

Percy hooked his feet under the boat's inflatable bench, and as Tyson grabbed Annabeth, Iris and him by the backs of their shirts, Percy gave the thermos cap a quarter turn.

Instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the thermos and propelled us sideways, turning their downward plummet into a forty-five-degree crash landing. The wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the thermos, like it was glad to be free. As they hit the ocean, they bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then they were whizzing along like a speed boat, salt spray in their faces and nothing but sea ahead.

Percy heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind the group, but they were already out of weapon range. The Princess Andromeda faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone. As they raced over the sea, Annabeth, Iris and Percy tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron, ironic isn't it. They figured it was important we let somebody know what Luke was doing, and they didn't know who else to trust.

The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight— perfect for an Iris-message—but their connection was still poor. Iris wasn't too keen on knowing what would be of their journey after this.

When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show them Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.

They told him about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the Princess Andromeda and the golden box for Kronos's remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on our end, Percy was not sure how much he heard.

"Percy," Chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for—"

His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him—a bunch of voices whooping it up like Comanche warriors.

"What?" Percy yelled.

"Curse my relatives!" Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight. "Annabeth and Iris, you two shouldn't have let Percy leave camp! But if you do get the Fleece —", Iris's face frowned as he said this, Percy didn't know why she was so confused about leaving the camp, this was a mission and it would help restore peace again.

"Yeah, baby!" somebody behind Chiron yelled. "Woohoooooo!"

The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made our boat vibrate."—Miami," Chiron was yelling. "I'll try to keep watch—"

Their misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone. An hour later they spotted land—a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels. The water became crowded with fishing boats and tankers. A coast guard cruiser passed on their starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look.

"That's Virginia Beach!" Annabeth said as we approached the shoreline. "Oh my gods, how did the Princess Andromeda travel so far overnight? That's like—"

"Five hundred and thirty nautical miles," Percy said.

Iris stared at him surprised by how quickly he was able to know this. "How did you know that?"

"I—I'm not sure."

Annabeth thought for a moment. "Percy, what's our position?"

"36 degrees, 44 minutes north, 76 degrees, 2 minutes west," Percy said immediately. Then he shook my head. "Whoa. How did I know that?"

"Because of your dad," Iris guessed after understanding what Annabeth was trying to see. "When you're at sea, you have perfect bearings. That is so cool."

Percy wasn't sure about that. He didn't want to be a human GPS unit. But before he could say anything, Tyson tapped his shoulder. "Other boat is coming."

They all looked back. The coast guard vessel was definitely on their tail now. Its lights were flashing and it was gaining speed.

"We can't let them catch us," Percy said. "They'll ask too many questions."

"Keep going into Chesapeake Bay," Annabeth said. "I know a place we can hide."

He didn't ask what she meant, or how she knew the area so well. He risked loosening the thermos cap a little more, and a fresh burst of wind sent us rocketing around the northern tip of Virginia Beach into Chesapeake Bay. The coast guard boat fell farther and farther behind. They didn't slow down until the shores of the bay narrowed on either side, and Percy realized they'd entered the mouth of a river.

"There," Iris said as she pointed. "Past that sandbar." They veered into a swampy area choked with marsh grass. Percy beached the lifeboat at the foot of a giant cypress. Vine-covered trees loomed above them, insects chirred in the woods. The air was muggy and hot, and steam curled off the river.

"Come on," Annabeth said. "It's just down the bank."

"What is?" Percy asked.

"Just follow." added Iris as she grabbed a duffel bag. "And we'd better cover the boat. We don't want to draw attention."

After burying the lifeboat with branches, Tyson and Percy followed Annabeth and Iris along the shore, their feet sinking in red mud. A snake slithered past Percy's shoe and disappeared into the grass.

"Not a good place," Tyson said. He swatted the mosquitoes that were forming a buffet line on his arm. After another few minutes, Annabeth said, "Here."

All Percy saw was a patch of brambles. Then Annabeth moved aside a woven circle of branches, like a door, and he realized that he was looking into a camouflaged shelter.

The inside was big enough for four, even with Tyson being the fourth. The walls were woven from plant material, like a Native American hut, but they looked pretty waterproof. Stacked in the corner was everything you could want for a campout—sleeping bags, blankets, an ice chest and a kerosene lamp. There were demigod provisions, too—bronze javelin tips, a quiver full of arrows, an extra sword, and a box of ambrosia.

The place smelled musty, like it had been vacant for a long time."A half-blood hideout." Percy looked at Iris and Annabeth in awe. "You made this place?"

"Thalia and I," Annabeth said quietly. "And Luke. When we were in our third summer together, Iris, Luke and I went on a trip and he showed her the hide-out"

"Yeah, it was really cool back then, I mean this place was like a playground to be honest," added Iris as she looked around the hide out.

"So..." Percy said frowning at her words, why would he care if Luke took her here? Thought Percy, it didn't matter to him at all of course. "You don't think Luke will look for us here?"

She shook her head. "We made a dozen safe houses like this. I doubt Luke even remembers where they are. Or cares." She threw herself down on the blankets and started going through her duffel bag. Her body language made it pretty clear she didn't want to talk, Iris knew that and sat next to her.

"Um, Tyson?" Percy said. "Would you mind scouting around outside? Like, look for a wilderness convenience store or something?"

"Convenience store?"

"Yeah, for snacks. Powdered donuts or something. Just don't go too far."

"Powdered donuts," Tyson said earnestly. "I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness." He headed outside and started calling, "Here, donuts!"

Once he was gone, Percy sat down across from Iris and Annabeth. "Hey, I'm sorry about, you know, seeing Luke."

"It's not your fault." She unsheathed her knife and started cleaning the blade with a rag.

"He let us go too easily," Percy said.

He hoped he'd been imagining it, but Annabeth nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. What we overheard him say about a gamble, and 'they'll take the bait'...I think he was talking about us."

"The Fleece is the bait? Or Grover?"

Iris studied Percy as she looked from Annabeth to him, her eyebrows frowned. "I don't know, Percy. Maybe he wants the Fleece for himself. Maybe he's hoping we'll do the hard work and then he can steal it from us. I just can't believe he would poison the tree."

"What did he mean," Percy asked looking at Iris, but the moment their eyes met, he wanted to know one thing and that was if she was okay. Percy hadn't asked her that question but continued with his question, "that Thalia would've been on his side?"

"He's wrong." said Iris

"You don't sound sure."

Iris glared daggers at him, and Percy started to wish he hadn't asked her about this while she was in front of him.

"Percy, you know who you remind me of most? Thalia. You guys are so much alike it's scary. I mean, either you would've been best friends or you would've strangled each other." added Annabeth as she looked up from her knife.

"Let's go with 'best friends."

"Thalia got angry with her dad sometimes. So do you. Would you turn against Olympus because of that?" He stared at the quiver of arrows in the corner. "No."

"Okay, then. Neither would she. Luke's wrong." Annabeth stuck her knife blade into the dirt.

Percy wanted to ask her about the prophecy Luke had mentioned and what it had to do with his sixteenth birthday. But he figured she wouldn't tell him and neither would Iris. Chiron had made it pretty clear that Percy wasn't allowed to hear it until the gods decided otherwise.

"So what did Luke mean about Cyclopes?" Percy asked. "He said you of all people—"

"I know what he said. He...he was talking about the real reason Thalia died."

Annabeth drew a shaky breath. "You can never trust a Cyclops, Percy. Six years ago, on the night Grover was leading us to Half-Blood Hill—"

She was interrupted when the door of the hut creaked open. Tyson crawled in. "Powdered donuts!" he said proudly, holding up a pastry box.

Annabeth stared at him. "Where did you get that? We're in the middle of the wilderness. There's nothing around for—"

"Fifty feet," Tyson said. "Monster Donut shop—just over the hill!"

"This is bad," Iris muttered looking over at Annabeth who nodded.

𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄, 𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐀 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄 staring at the donut shop in the middle of the woods. It looked brand new, with brightly lit windows, a parking area, and a little road leading off into the forest, but there was nothing else around, and no cars parked in the lot.

They could see one employee reading a magazine behind the cash register. That was it. On the store's marquis, in huge black letters that even Percy could read, it said:
MONSTER DONUT

A cartoon ogre was taking a bite out of the O in MONSTER. The place smelled good, like fresh-baked chocolate donuts. "This shouldn't be here," Annabeth whispered. "It's wrong."

"What?" Percy asked. "It's a donut shop."

"Shhh!" whisper yelled Iris as she flicked Percy's forehead.

"Ow! Why are we whispering? Tyson went in and bought a dozen. Nothing happened to him." added Percy as he glared at her.

"He's a monster." said Annabeth shaking her head at the two.

"Aw, c'mon, Annabeth. Monster Donut doesn't mean monsters! It's a chain. We've got them in New York."

"A chain," she agreed. "And don't you think it's strange that one appeared immediately after you told Tyson to get donuts? Right here in the middle of the woods?"

"It could be a nest," Annabeth explained.

Tyson whimpered. Percy doubted he understood what Annabeth was saying any better than he did, but her tone was making him nervous. He'd plowed through half a dozen donuts from his box and was getting powdered sugar all over his face.

"A nest for what?" Percy asked.

"Haven't you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so fast?" Iris asked now clearly annoyed by him. "One day there's nothing and then the next day—boom, there's a new burger place or a coffee shop or whatever? First a single store, then two, then four—exact replicas spreading across the country?"

"Um, no. Never thought about it."

"Percy, some of the chains multiply so fast because all their locations are magically linked to the life force of a monster. Some children of Hermes figured out how to do it back in the 1950s. They breed—"

She froze."What?" Percy demanded moving closer to her. "They breed what?"

"No—sudden—moves," Iris said, like her life depended on it. "Very slowly, turn around."

Then he heard it: a scraping noise, like something large dragging its belly through the leaves. Percy turned and saw a rhino-size thing moving through the shadows of the trees. It was hissing, its front half writhing in all different directions. He couldn't understand what he was seeing at first. Then he realized the thing had multiple necks—at least seven, each topped with a hissing reptilian head. Its skin was leathery, and under each neck it wore a plastic bib that read: I'M A MONSTER DONUT KID!

Percy took out his ballpoint pen, but Annabeth locked eyes with him, giving him a silent warning. Not yet. A lot of monsters have terrible eyesight. It was possible the Hydra might pass us by. But if he uncapped his sword now, the bronze glow would certainly get its attention. We waited.

The Hydra was only a few feet away. It seemed to be sniffing the ground and the trees like it was hunting for something. Then Iris noticed that two of the heads were ripping apart a piece of yellow canvas—one of our duffel bags. The thing had already been to our campsite. It was following their scent.

Tyson was trembling. He stepped back and accidentally snapped a twig. Immediately, all seven heads turned toward us and hissed.

"Scatter!" Annabeth yelled. She and Iris dove to the right.

Percy rolled to the left as one of the Hydra heads spat an arc of green liquid that shot past his shoulder and splashed against an elm. The trunk smoked and began to disintegrate. The whole tree toppled straight toward Tyson, who still hadn't moved, petrified by the monster that was now right in front of him.

"Tyson!" Percy tackled him with all his might, knocking him aside just as the Hydra lunged and the tree crashed on top of two of its heads.

The Hydra stumbled backward, yanking its heads free then wailing in outrage at the fallen tree. All seven heads shot acid, and the elm melted into a steaming pool of muck.

"Move!" Percy told Tyson. He ran to one side and uncapped Riptide, hoping to draw the monster's attention. It worked. The sight of celestial bronze is hateful to most monsters. As soon as his glowing blade appeared, the Hydra whipped toward it with all its heads, hissing and baring its teeth.

One of the heads snapped at Percy experimentally. Without thinking, he swung my sword. "No!" Annabeth and Iris yelled.

Too late, he sliced the Hydra's head clean off. It rolled away into the grass, leaving a flailing stump, which immediately stopped bleeding and began to swell like a balloon.

In a matter of seconds the wounded neck split into two necks, each of which grew a full-size head. Now he was looking at an eight-headed Hydra.

"Percy!" Annabeth scolded. "You just opened another Monster Donut shop somewhere!"

He dodged a spray of acid. "I'm about to die and you're worried about that? How do we kill it?"

"Fire!" Iris said clearly a bit mad at Percy. "We have to have fire!"

As soon as she said that, Percy remembered the story. The Hydra's heads would only stop multiplying if we burned the stumps before they regrew. That's what Heracles had done, anyway. But we had no fire. Percy backed up toward river. The Hydra followed.

Annabeth moved in on his left and tried to distract one of the heads, parrying its teeth with her knife, but another head swung sideways like a club and knocked her into the muck.

"No hitting my friends!" Tyson charged in, putting himself between the Hydra and Annabeth. As Annabeth got to her feet, Tyson started smashing at the monster heads with his fists so fast it reminded him of the whack-a-mole game at the arcade. But even Tyson couldn't fend off the Hydra forever.

They kept inching backward, dodging acid splashes and deflecting snapping heads without cutting them off, but they knew they were only postponing their deaths. Eventually, they would make a mistake and the thing would kill them, Iris wasn't very keen on that part but she wouldn't let that happen. Then they heard a strange sound—a chug-chug-chug that at first Percy thought was his heartbeat. It was so powerful it made the riverbank shake.

"What's that noise?" Annabeth shouted, keeping her eyes on the Hydra.

"Steam engine," Tyson said.

"What?" Percy said as ducked as the Hydra spat acid over his head, eyes wide open.

Then from the river behind us, a familiar female voice shouted: "There! Prepare the thirty- two-pounder!"

He didn't dare look away from the Hydra, but if that was who Percy thought it was behind us, Percy figured they now had enemies on two fronts.

A gravelly male voice said, "They're too close, m'lady!"

"Damn the heroes!" the girl said. "Full steam ahead!"

"Aye, m'lady."

"Fire at will, Captain!"

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❪ ៸ 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 ━━━━━ ! ﹆◞ ❫
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━━━━━ . . .
❪ . . . the 9th chapter for LOVE STORY everyone! ❫
❪ . . . this is 4.1k which is a a lot more than I expected but I hope you enjoy, I haven't updated in a month but abut of jealous Percy 🤭🤭❫
❪ . . . PLEASE tell me how you guys feel about it ??❫
❪ . . .PLEASE don't be a ghost reader, comment and vote, I love to reply to everyone and interact with my readers, love all of you darlings <33 ❫
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