Caleo: I Will Find You

Leo's POV 9

Mr. Rock Man looked none too happy about the fact that he had various weapons now pointed at him. Albeit, we were teenagers and probably didn't look too threatening. But messing with fire was still dangerous, whether it came from a candle or an explosion.

"Uh, passengers, this is your Captain speaking again. We have an unwanted shipment of flagstone on the deck that needs to be dealt with ASAP."

Then I snorted and picked up the intercom again- "You could say it needs to be dealt with ASAP Rocky."

Even from the cabin looking down on the deck I could hear Percy grumble. "Leo, that was bad."

"You're one to talk about bad jokes, Aquaman." I chuckled over the intercom. Honestly, I was stalling, hoping that if I had A$AP's attention on me, my friends would come up with a plan for destroying him. Though I had no clue, so I doubted they did either.

"You know I hate that name!" Percy yelled, turning to look at me above him. He winked at me, so I knew he understood what I was doing.

"What name? Aquaman?"

"Yes, Aquaman! What other name did you call me just now?"

I snuck a glance away from Percy to look at Rocky. Annabeth and Piper were conspiring in the corner and Jason and Hazel and Frank were huddled in another. I hoped they knew what they were doing.

"I, uh, called you Waterboy but I guess you didn't hear me."

"Waterboy?" asked the son of Poseidon. "That's arguably worse."

"Wow," I continued. "Arguably. Big word for a boy like you! I'm surprised you know what it means."

"Hey!" he cried out. "That one hurt, pal."

This time, I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. I checked his face and he was glaring at me, but with the steadily moving sun blinding my eyes I couldn't tell if he winked again. I decided to keep the banter strictly on nicknames.

"Sorry... hey, speaking of hurt, anybody have any idea why ASAP Rocky here has decided to hurt my ship?" I asked, semi rhetorically. I was wondering for real how he got here and why, and not focusing so much on the repair work I'd have to do to the deck.

"Hurt your ship?" The man of rock asked, raising a sedimentary eyebrow. "You think this is how I've hurt your ship? I can show you real hurt if you so desire-"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Percy spoke up, turning away from his view of me and facing the monster. He held his hands up in a sort of hello Mr. Rock Man, please don't crush me type of way. "That is not necessary, okay? How about we talk a little? Huh? What's your name?"

While Percy fraternized with the enemy, I watched carefully from the Captain's quarters above my friends. While I was focusing on the monster's movements, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning around, I was face-to-face with Annabeth Chase.

"From what I can figure, this creature is a golem," She explained, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and watching her boyfriend carefully. She didn't really meet my eyes, giving me the vibes of a worried widow-to-be. "They're mythological monsters made of clay, brought to life by magic."

"But he looks like he's made of stone," I said.

"Cracks in clay due to exposure to the elements can create a rock-like texture over time," she mumbled, eyebrows furrowed. "I'm trying to think of a myth where a golem was defeated."

"And if you can't think of one?" I asked her.

This time she finally looked at me. "Then we'll have to improvise."

"Percy's preferred method of combat..." I mumbled under my breath.

I watched as the daughter of Athena mindlessly stared out the window, racking her brain for a way out of this predicament. If she couldn't think of one, nobody could.

"Oh, you like croquet?" Percy asked, running out of ideas on his improvinization train. 

"Croquet? No!" ASAP shouted. "I said cricket!"

"Like the insect?" Percy asked.

"Like the game, genius."

The raven-haired boy nodded slowly, accompanied by an "Ah. Right."  Jutting a thumb over his shoulder. "Nah, you got me all wrong here, Sap. My girlfriend's the genius of the group."

"Yeah, Genius, you got anything yet?" I asked her.

"Still thinking..." She said.

"Uh, well, could you please think faster, maybe?"

She didn't answer me, scanning every piece of literature she's read over and over in her mind. I hoped she'd come up with something. I didn't have anything in the lines of improvise and kill this rock giant on your ship. 

"Nothing," Annabeth concluded. "Nothing. How could I be so stupid? I'm mixing up myths."

She slammed her fist down on the console table. "The golem myth I'm thinking of dates back to Jewish folklore. But those don't speak..."

"A hybrid, maybe?" I asked. "A monster evolving to the time?"

"Maybe..." She whispered. She didn't look convinced.

"Any way to stop it?"

She paced around the small room while Percy continued to run low on ideas. "The only thing I can think of is something I read, but I don't know how we'd do that."

"Annabeth, we have to try something!"

"I know, I know..." She said. She walked back to the window and glared at the so called golem. "What I've read is that, in some tales like the ones from Chelm and Prague, is that we change the inscription on the head of the golem. From the article, the example they used is removing the aleph in the inscription emet, thus changing it to met."

"Which means?"

She looked at me and I watched the words fly behind her eyes. "We change the meaning from truth to death, and that would disable the golem."

I rubbed my hands together, feeling them heat up due to the friction. "You got a plan?"

"Not yet."

I nodded. Our odds were good, right? 

I was beginning to doubt that this would end easily.