Blood Of Poseidon

IX. The Undead Crew

He woke to the blaring of alarm bells resonating throughout the ship. Percy had made it back to the ship with the help of a Hippocambi. The captain's gravelly voice echoed urgently, commanding all hands on deck to find Lady Clarisse. The urgency in the air was palpable as the ship approached its destination. A spectral face appeared above him, the captain's stern features conveying a sense of imminent danger. "Get up, Yankee. Your friends are already above. We are approaching the entrance." "The entrance to what?" Percy questioned, his confusion evident. The captain offered a skeletal smile. "The Sea of Monsters, of course." Extremely tired from the fight with Avatias, Percy made his way upstairs.  However, a strange feeling compelled him to pause. There was a familiar and unpleasant presence nearby, sparking an inexplicable desire for confrontation. The last time he felt such anger... Instead of continuing upward, Percy crept to the edge of a ventilation grate and peered down into the boiler deck. Below, Clarisse conversed with an apparition in the steam – a muscular man in black leather, donning red-tinted sunglasses and a knife strapped to his side. Percy's fists clenched at the sight of his least favorite Olympian, Ares, the god of war. "I don't want excuses, little girl!" Ares growled at Clarisse. "Y-yes, father," she mumbled, clearly intimidated. "You don't want to see me mad, do you?" Ares warned. "No, father," Clarisse replied obediently. Ares mocked her, "No, father. You're pathetic." The captain's urgent voice interrupted the tense moment, and Percy overheard officers preparing for imminent danger. Backing away from the grate, Percy headed upstairs to join Annabeth and Tyson on the spar deck. As Percy shared the unsettling vision with Annabeth, Clarisse ascended the stairs. He tried to avoid eye contact with her, sensing an impending challenge. She, however, focused on the approaching horizon through binoculars, announcing their proximity to their destination. Percy strained to see what lay ahead, the overcast sky and hazy air hindering his view. Nautical instincts informed him they were off the coast of northern Florida, having traveled farther than any mortal ship should. The engine groaned as they increased speed, and Tyson expressed concern about the strain on the pistons. After a few more minutes, the dark splotches ahead came into focus. To the north, a massive rock mass emerged from the sea—an island with cliffs at least a hundred feet tall. About half a mile south of that, the other dark patch signaled a brewing storm. The sky and sea melded in a roaring mass. "Hurricane?" Annabeth inquired. "No," Clarisse replied. "Charybdis." Annabeth's face paled. "Are you crazy?" "Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla." Clarisse gestured toward the cliffs, implying something ominous lived up there. "What about the Clashing Rocks?" Annabeth suggested. "That's another gateway. Jason used it." "I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons," Clarisse retorted. "Monsters, on the other hand..." "You are crazy," Annabeth concluded. "Watch and learn, Wise Girl." Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!" "Aye, m'lady." The engine groaned, and the iron plating rattled as the ship accelerated. "Clarisse," Percy interjected, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?" "And spits it back out again, yeah." "What about Scylla?" "She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship." "Choose Scylla then," Percy suggested. "Everybody goes below deck, and we chug right past." "No!" Clarisse insisted. "If Scylla doesn't get her easy meat, she might pick up the whole ship. Besides, she's too high to make a good target. My cannons can't shoot straight up. Charybdis just sits there at the center of her whirlwind. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!" She said it with such relish that one might almost want to believe her. The engine hummed, and the boilers heated up, making the deck warm beneath their feet. The smokestacks billowed, and the red Ares flag whipped in the wind. "It is a foolish and reckless one. Charybdis can't be blown by our canons. I say we choose Scylla and then drift to Charybdis when its safe." "This is my ship and my quest, Prissy, I know what to do." "Just said" Percy raised his hand in surrender.