ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

64

PREDICTABLY, KAT FELL asleep after meeting Hercules. She was fucking tired, man.

So tired, in fact, that she'd completely missed meeting the dolphin men and the golden man 'cause apparently they'd knocked her out while she was sleeping. Which, like, what the fuck? Now she had a throbbing headache.

Frank woke her up after everything exciting happened. She pouted, wincing at the pain in her head, but she helped the crew return their stupid stolen supplies to the right places by speeding stuff over. Then they tidied up while Hedge had a field day on the enemy ship, breaking everything he could find with his baseball bat.

That was a shame. Kat wanted to be a pirate when she grew up. She wanted to meet those pirates. And they probably had a shit ton of treasure . . .

Percy loaded the enemy's weapons back on the pirate ship. Their storeroom was full of treasure, but he insisted that they touch none of it. Jason had to physically restrain Kat from leaping over and stealing something.

"I can sense about six million dollars' worth of gold aboard," Hazel said. "Plus diamonds, rubies—"

"Six m-million?" Frank stammered. "Canadian dollars or American?"

"Leave it," Percy said. "It's part of the tribute."

"Tribute?" Hazel asked.

"Oh." Piper nodded. "Kansas."

Jason yanked Kat back after she charged forward. "Crazy. But I like it. Rina, can you please stop fighting me?"

"There's so much goldddddd!" Kat whined. "Give it to me."

She wasn't let out of Jason's grasp, so she had to sulk and watch as Percy and Leo went on the ship, then she watched as the crew ( minus her and Jason ) cut the grappling lines. Piper brought out her new horn of plenty and, on Percy's direction, willed it to spew Diet Coke, which came out with the strength of a fire hose, dousing the enemy deck. The ship sank like the fucking Titanic, filling with Diet Coke and seawater.

"Dionysus," Percy called, holding up Chrysaor's golden mask. "Or Bacchus — whatever. You made this victory possible, even if you weren't here. Your enemies trembled at your name . . . or your Diet Coke, or something. So, yeah, thank you."

Kat snickered at him as he kept talking, "we give this ship to you as tribute. We hope you like it."

"Six million in gold," muttered Kat. "He'd better like it, since I didn't steal any of it."

"Shh," scolded Hazel. "Precious metal isn't all that great. Believe me."

"You do you, Hazelnut," said Kat. "Personally, I'm all up for eating the rich, but you do you."

Percy threw the golden mask aboard the vessel, which was now sinking even faster, brown fizzy liquid spewing out the trireme's oar slots and bubbling from the cargo hold, turning the sea frothy brown.

Percy summoned a wave, and the enemy ship was swamped. Leo steered the Argo II away as the pirate vessel disappeared underwater.

"Isn't that polluting?" Piper asked.

"I wouldn't worry," Jason told her. "If Bacchus likes it, the ship should vanish."

After their bout with the pirates, they decided to fly the rest of the way to Rome. Jason insisted he was well enough to take sentry duty, along with Hedge, who was still so charged with adrenaline that every time the ship hit turbulence, he swung his bat and yelled, "Die!"

Kat glared at Jason, before reaching up to lightly brush her fingers over his bruises. "I'll forgive you . . . for now," she told him.

He winced for a moment before giving her a small but victorious smile. "Good."