The Curse of Oenone (Daughter of Olympus II) - [Leo Valdez xF!Oc]

Are We the Baddies?

"Where are they?" Coach Hedge comes up running. "Who do I kill?"

"No killing!" Annabeth shouts. "Just help me defend the ship!"

"But they interrupted a Chuck Norris movie!"

Piper runs up the steps. "Got a message through to Jason. Kind of fuzzy, but he's already on his way. He should be—oh! There!"

"Frank!" Hazel exclaims in relief.

Leo is not a fan of eagles as a way of transportation, judging by the amount of curse words that are leaving his mouth as they fly past them. 

"Never seen Jason fly before," Percy points out. "He looks like a blond Superman."

"More like Captain America," Ara also looks up. "If Captain America could, you know, control the wind—"

"Wait, doesn't that other Captain America have wings, Sam—"

"This isn't the time!" Piper snaps them out of their conversation. "Look, they're in trouble!"

Ara spots the flying chariot behind them. "Coach!"

"I'll get 'em!"

Ara sees him reach for the ballista. "NO—"

It was lucky they were close to the fort, otherwise, everyone would've plummeted to their deaths. Not that crashing against hard rock was any better, but at least there the bodies would be easier to find.

"Coach!" Piper scolds him.

"What? That was just a warning shot!"

"Percy!" Ara shouts tensely as they get closer to the wall. "This ship doesn't come with water brakes—"

"Don't worry," he says, holding onto her shoulder. "I got it."

Annabeth approaches them. "They're too many, we can't fight them all—once we're there, Percy, you're going to have to hold off the attackers. The rest of the group should help him guard the ship, but you," she looks at Ara. "I need you with me."

Ara nods. "Now, Percy!"

The boy pulls on the currents so the ship slows down, Ara hears an unpleasant screeching, but if any damage was done to the ship, she'll fix it later.

"The fort is crawling with Romans," Percy warns them. "You'll have to fight your way through, find our friends—assuming they're okay—find this map, and get everybody back alive. All on your own?"

"Just an average day," Annabeth kisses him before leaving. "Whatever you do, don't let them take this ship!" 

Ara shouts as she runs away. "If you let them damage Festus or the ship, you'll wish you'd stayed at Phorcys's exhibit!"

The girls race through dodging frightened tourists and angry demigods. Frank is fighting as an elephant—an odd choice, but certainly better than any other—Leo is throwing balls of fire at eagles, and Jason is taking as many demigods as he can without hurting them much. 

Ara presses twice on her compass and it turns into a bow. She reaches over her back, where a quiver has appeared. Ara doesn't know if her stash of arrows is unlimited, she's never counted them and she doesn't use this version of Almighty that often.

"Okay, now what?" She asks over the chaos.

Annabeth stops and shouts. "Jason! Get the other on board!"

"What about you two?" He yells back.

"Don't wait for us!"

Ara shoots an arrow that lands on a guy's foot. "Nice shot!" Jason pushes the injured boy out of his way and runs towards Leo.