THIS IS ME TRYING

30: In Disguise

THEY ARRIVED at Long Island via Hippocampi, which were half horse and half fish; a sea creature that Tyson had befriended. Kronos' cruise ship (the Princess Andromeda) had arrived at the deck for an emergency stop due to a mechanical failure, leaving the small group waiting for the right chance to infiltrate the ship to save Annabeth and retrieve the Fleece. It was Percy's idea to have Tyson mimic the voices of Luke's friends, attracting the attention of an Aphrodite boy so they could secretly steal his golden key card to aboard the ship.

"Aidan! Over here."

"Come on. Hurry up!"

Luna watched as Tyson closed his eye, copying the voices of Luke's friends and calling out to the Aphrodite boy— Aidan. They all waited in the empty office room, staring at the door as it swung open.

"Allison?" Aidan replied, with a casual chuckle, "Stop checking up on me—" and he was interrupted by Clarisse pushing him up against a wall, grabbing the collar of his fancy blazer.

Tyson spoke in Allison's voice, "Sorry, Aidan."

Aidan didn't seem bothered, he just casually glanced over at Tyson and smiled, "Pet Cyclops. Sneaky." His eyes travelled to the boy beside Tyson, "Wow. Percy Jackson— big fan. We should go somewhere and talk." His voice was laced with persuasion, as his eyes fluttered towards Luna. Aidan smirked, "You should come, too—"

Luna wasn't entirely sure what he was playing at, but it wasn't working. Clarisse's eyes darted towards Luna, almost as if she was scanning her for any signs of uncomfortableness. And Luna frowned at Aidan quickly; Percy glanced at her with the same expression of confusion on his face. Percy didn't like that this boy was somewhat flirting with his sister. And it was clear that Clarisse wasn't a fan of it either...

She shoved him back into the wall again to interrupt him, her hands gripping even tighter around the collar of his blazer. Clarisse spat, "Lose the Charmspeak, Aphrodite boy, or lose your teeth. Your choice."

Percy stepped forward warningly, "Where's Annabeth?"

They moved Aidan to a nearby desk, sitting him down on a chair as Tyson wrapped a thin wire around him to restrain him. But again, Aidan didn't seem to care about being captured, almost as if their small group wasn't a threat to him at all. Tyson was in charge of guarding him, as Percy rummaged through his bag to try and find a golden key card.

Luna was aware of Charmspeak and the power that some Aphrodite kids possessed, though she thought it was supposed to work. Luna thought that, even if she didn't want to, Aidan's Charmspeak would convince her to want to speak with Aidan alone. But she didn't. When Luna looked at him being tied up in a chair from across the room, she felt nothing at all. Nothing compelled her to like him... she just felt normal. She wanted to know why it hadn't worked on her— Luna had heard rumours that Charmspeak only worked if a person was attracted to them, but she didn't entirely know if that was true. Either way, she wanted to know why Clarisse got so mad.

"I know how to get to this freezer room," Percy said, as he placed Aiden's bag on the counter, "I just need to find..." he pulled a golden key card from the bag, "Yes!" And Luna stared at it for the moment, jumping down from perching on the counter; it looked exactly like the golden key card from her dream.

"Cool." Clarisse snatched it from his hands.

"Wait," Percy replied, "What are you doing?"

"Aidan said the Fleece is in Luke's room. Need this to get in there." Clarisse explained simply.

"You're right, but we need to get Annabeth first." Percy reasoned.

"Nuh-uh," Clarisse shook her head, "We're doing this my way."