Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian

Of flying horses, dented cars and explosions- Part 2

Beckendorf-

'So,' I said to Percy, chuckling. 'I'm guessing you don't want me to mention that little scene to Annabeth.'

'Oh, gods. Don't even think about it,' he muttered. I laughed even harder.

Some hours later, we finally reached the Princess Andromeda, with its creepy-screaming-maiden masthead. That alone was enough to give anyone chills, even without all the monsters and evil demigods aboard.

'You know what to do?' I yelled over the wind. He nodded in reply.

Good. If Percy hadn't known what to do on potentially life threatening trip trying to blow up an enemy ship, I would have been worried. This was our best chance to defeat Kronos' forces before the war even started. If we failed...

'Blackjack,' called my companion, 'set us down on the lowest stern.' Blackjack didn't seem to like that, tossing his mane and whinnying. I didn't blame him. I didn't particularly want to land on the deck either.

'Don't wait for us.'

Blackjack whinnied again.

'Trust me. We'll get out ourselves,' he told the pegasus. I sincerely hoped so.

The wind whistled as we plummeted down at the speed of lightning. We were going so fast that the monsters we passed- giants, weird sea demons, hellhounds and other oddities- didn't seem to see anything more than a dark blur.

As soon as we had climbed off the pegasus, with me taking the sack of Greek fire down very carefully, Blackjack sailed off into the night, his dark form indistinguishable from the night sky. I pulled a photo of Silena from my pocket. Looking at her beautiful, smiling face, I felt a tinge of anxiety. What if we didn't come get back?

'We'll make it back to camp,' Percy promised.

'You bet,' I replied, trying to sound confident. After all, Percy was probably even more nervous than I was.

We crept through a long, narrow corridor, freezing when we heard monstrous voices, but continuing until we reached the stairwell.

'I don't care what your nose says!' snarled a sea demon. 'The last time you smelled half-blood, it turned out to be a meatloaf sandwich!'

'Meatloaf sandwiches are good!' whined another sea demon. 'But this half-blood scent, I swear. They are on board!'

I looked at Percy worriedly. If we were found...

'Bah, your brain isn't on board!'

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I pointed for Percy to follow me, and we continued down the stair case quietly (or, a least as quietly as you can wearing bronze armour and carrying Greek fire). After climbing down two stories we found what we were looking for: the engine room. It was locked, but I grabbed the chain cutters that I'd packed out of my bag and split the lock open.

Inside, yellow turbines hummed and churned. On the opposite wall, pressure gauges and computer terminals stood. A telkhine stood in the corner, crouching over a console. Thankfully, he didn't seem to be paying attention to his surroundings. With his bulbous Doberman head, sea lion body and stubby feet and legs, he wasn't going to be entering any beauty contests.

Percy stepped up to him. The sea demon looked up and tried to scramble away to an alarm button, but before he could do anything, Percy sliced him in half, causing him to explode into a cloud of dust.

'One down,' I said. 'And about five thousand to go.' Reaching into my bag, I tossed him a jar of highly dangerous Greek fire, and then some duct tape.