CHAPTER I: THIS STORM IS SHIFTY

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Leo's POV

Leo was panicking. A bunch of stuff on the Argo II was malfunctioning, even though it was functioning well five minutes ago. Leo had no clue why it wasn't working. He'd been in the engine room for the last two hours, checking to make sure all was well. Once he was done checking everything, warning lights turned on. They turned off after a couple seconds, the but the problems were still there.

"Leo! Oh my gods! What is happening?!" Jason shouted as he ran down the stairs to the engine room, sopping wet.

"I have no idea!" Leo shouted back. Well, maybe not. There were some Greek cuss words too. OK, maybe a lot of Greek cuss words that Jason probably didn't understand as he only knows Latin. Leo heard a clap of thunder through the walls. "How long has it been raining?"

"It started five minutes ago. Crazy storm. Went from blinding sun to pouring in seconds. There isn't lightning, but it might start soon," Jason said, very much out of breath. "What can you do about the ship?"

"I'm working on it. It might have something to do with the storm," Leo said. Another clap of thunder. "Doesn't thunder happen after lightning? Didn't you say there was no lightning?"

"Yeah, I know. This storm is shifty and defying meteorology," Jason said. "As a son of Jupiter, I declare that this crap is weird."

"No kidding," Leo said to himself. He walked over to the machinery detecting electricity made from sources other than the ship. It was reading high levels of static electricity. "I dunno if this is a thing, Jason, but there is a bunch of static electricity in the air moving at incredible speeds. Like I said, I dunno if that is normal."

"Um...I'm not Annabeth, but you're right, that isn't normal, I don't think," Jason said uncertainly.

"Y'know, that might be what's screwing the Argo II up," Leo said, not necessarily to Jason. "Crap!"

"What?!"

"If we don't stabilize the ship, we're gonna go down, fast. In ten minutes," Leo answered.

"What're we gonna do?" Jason asked.

"C'mon!" Leo said, racing to the deck. Jason ran after him. Leo was really confused what the heck was going on. Why did a storm appear out of nowhere? Was it Zeus getting mad at the Romans Jason, Frank, and Hazel? Or was it Jupiter getting mad at the Greeks Nico, Piper, and himself? And what were they going to do if Leo's plan worked. It's not like there was water underneath them for them to sail on. Besides, their sea expert, Percy, was stuck in Tartarus. And Annabeth, the one person Leo would expect to come up with a good idea, was also in Tartarus. Gods, being a hyperactive, dyslexic, ADHD, stressed son of Hephaestus was hard!

Up on deck were Nico, Piper, Frank, and Hazel, soaking wet, with looks of concern on their faces. That was an understatement. They were in the word's weirdest storm while their ship decided to misbehave.

"Leo, what the crud is going on?!" Nico asked.

"The storm isn't playing nicely with the Argo II," Leo said. "Jason, our resident son of Jupiter, can you control the wind to get the ship to a landing spot?"

"Yeah, I guess," Jason said. "We aren't above water though, I don't think. Are you sure you want to land on, well, land?"

"I don't like it, man, but it's our only choice. Either we land like this, or we go KA-BLOOM! after a crazy crash landing. I'd prefer this landing to a crash landing," Leo said to his friend.

Jason sighed. "OK. Not the worst plan we have."

"Hey, is any plan we make good? This is the best bad plan we have," Leo said, trying to lighten his and Jason's spirits. Leo turned to the rest of the crew. "We need to get the sails up. Jason will need them to the steer the ship down to the ground."

"We're in the middle of Italy! There isn't a river big enough for the Argo II below us!" Frank said.

"I know, I've thought that through. Frank it's either this or a giant explosion. We have a higher chance of surviving with my plan," Leo retorted. Gods, why does Frank have to always get so in my face?

"OK. Jason can do this. I think. He can do this," Hazel said nervously.

Piper was hugging Jason. "You can do, but if you get us killed my mom will make your life suck in the Underworld, just FYI."

"Oh, yes. The protective moms. Don't worry Pipes. I got this," Jason said.

"You two, we have seven minutes or less until the emergency engines go offline. We need to get the sails up so that Jason can have something for the wind to pull," Leo said.

"So save the lovey stuff for later, Piper, Jason," Nico said.

Nico, Piper, Hazel, and Frank were running around getting the sales ready. Five minutes left. Jason and Leo stood apart from them.

"OK, Jason, in five minutes the emergency engines will be offline. You will have to start moving the ship right when the engines stops, or you could damage them even more, making it even more difficult to fix the ship. We have five minutes left. We're cutting it close. The sails should be up by then," Leo tole Jason.

Jason gulped down his worries and said, "OK. I'll do it. Just tell me when."

"OK. We're at four minutes right now!" Leo shouted to the rest if the demigods.

At one minute the sails were up. "Ya might want to grab onto something or go below deck. This might be bumpy," Jason said.

Everyone complied. Leo ran to the wheel. "I can still control the rudder, I think. At certain angles it can help you, Jason. I got you."

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