Warriors || Leo Valdez [2]

20

Alex stumbled up the stairs when the whole ship started rocking violently. What she saw in the ocean though didn't make her feel better. 

The monster was the length of their ship. In the moonlight, it looked like a cross between a giant shrimp and a cockroach, with a pink chitinous shell, a flat crayfish tail, and millipede-type legs undulating hypnotically as the monster scraped against the hull of the Argo II.

Its head surfaced last-the slimy pink face of an enormous catfish with glassy dead eyes, a gaping toothless maw, and a forest of tentacles sprouting from each nostril, making the bushiest nose beard Alex had ever had the displeasure to behold.

Percy yelled, "What's going- Gah! Shrimpzilla!"

Frank ran to Hazel's side. She was clutching the rigging, and looked more than just sea sick. She looked like she had been crying for hours. 

The monster rammed the ship again. The hull groaned. Annabeth, Piper, Alex and Jason tumbled to starboard and almost rolled overboard.

Leo reached the helm. His hands flew across the controls. Over the intercom, Festus clacked and clicked about leaks belowdecks, but the ship didn't seem to be in danger of sinking-at least not yet.

"How did it get so close?" Annabeth shouted, pulling herself up on one of the rail shields.

"I don't know!" Hedge snarled. He looked around for his bat, which had rolled across the quarterdeck.

"I'm stupid!" Leo scolded himself. "Stupid, stupid! I forgot the sonar!"

The ship tilted farther to starboard. Either the monster was trying to give them a hug, or it was about to capsize them.

"Sonar?" Hedge demanded. "Pan's pipes, Valdez! Maybe if you hadn't been staring into Hazel's eyes, holding hands for so long-"

"What?" Frank's eyes widened in almost a comical way. 

Alex wasn't that jealous by it though. She knew Leo, and she trusted him. And anyways, it was probably just Coach Hedge exaggerating. 

"It wasn't like that!" Hazel and Leo protested. His brown eyes found Alex's and she could see the desperation in them. She gave him a small nod, and he understood. Somehow, being his annoying self, Leo even managed a small smirk at how much the two knew each other. 

"It doesn't matter!" Piper said. "Jason, can you call some lightning?"

Jason struggled to his feet. "I-" He only managed to shake his head. Summoning the storm earlier had taken too much out of him. Alex doubted the poor guy could pop a spark plug in the shape he was in.

"Violet?" Hazel asked. 

But the blonde shook their head. They could make vines appear, but in the middle of the ocean there wasn't much they could do.

"Can you two talk to that thing? Do you know what it is?" Annabeth asked Percy and Alex.

Percy shook his head, clearly mystified. "Maybe it's just curious about the ship. Maybe-"

The monster's tendrils lashed across the deck so fast, Alex didn't even have time to yell, Look out!

One slammed Percy in the chest and sent him crashing down the steps. One wrapped around Piper's legs and dragged her, screaming, toward the rail. And another slammed Alex against the deck. Dozens more tendrils curled around the masts, encircling the crossbows and ripping down the rigging.

"Nose-hair attack!" Hedge snatched up his bat and leaped into action; but his hits just bounced harmlessly off the tendrils.

Jason drew his sword. He tried to free Piper, but he was still weak. His gold blade cut through the tendrils with no problem, but faster than he could sever them, more took their place.

Alex got up, and flicked her wrist. She tried to help Jason, but to no avail.

Annabeth unsheathed her dagger. She ran through the forest of tentacles, dodging and stabbing at whatever target she could find. Frank pulled out his bow. He fired over the side at the creature's body, lodging arrows in the chinks of its shell; but that only seemed to annoy the monster. It bellowed, and rocked the ship. The mast creaked like it might snap off.

"Hazel!" Leo yelled. "That box! Open it!"

She hesitated, then saw the box he meant. The label read WARNING. DO NOT OPEN.

"Open it!" Leo yelled again. "Coach, take the wheel! Turn us toward the monster, or we'll capsize."

Hedge danced through the tentacles with his nimble goat hooves, smashing away with gusto. He bounded toward the helm and took the controls.

"Hope you got a plan!" he shouted.

"A bad one." Leo raced toward the mast.

The monster pushed against the Argo II. The deck lurched to forty-five degrees. Despite everyone's efforts, the tentacles were just too numerous to fight. They seemed able to elongate as much as they wanted. Soon they'd have the Argo II completely entangled. Percy hadn't appeared from below. The others were fighting for their lives against nose hair.

"Frank!" Leo called as he ran toward Hazel. "Buy us some time! Can you turn into a shark or something?"

Frank glanced over, scowling; and in that moment a tentacle slammed into the big guy, knocking him overboard.

Hazel screamed. She'd opened the supply box and almost dropped the three glass vials she was holding.

Leo caught them. Each was the size of an apple, and the liquid inside glowed poisonous green. The glass was warm to the touch. Leo called for Alex and handed her and Hazel a vial each.

"Come on!" Leo said ."Lex, I need your help too. We can kill the monster-and save Frank!"

"What is this stuff?" Hazel gasped, cradling her glass vial.

"Greek fire!" Alex yelled back. 

Her eyes widened. "Are you crazy? If these break, we'll burn the whole ship!"

"Its mouth!" Leo said. "Just chuck it down its-"

Suddenly Leo was wrapped in a tentacle along with Hazel. Alex watched in horror as they rose ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet above the monster. Leo gave her a look and Alex understood. She smacked the monster with a wave enough that it opened it's mouth to protest or yell.. or do something sea monster-y. And that's when Hazel and Leo chucked the vials into it's mouth. It wailed in agony.

The monster sunk into the deep along with Leo and Hazel still in it's clutches. 

"LEO! HAZEL!" Alex yelled, tears threatened to spill and her eyes felt like they were on fire. But she didn't care.

She jumped off the ship and into the cold water, not that it bothered her. Soon she was joined by Percy, but they still couldn't find their friends. 

On deck, Annabeth, Coach Hedge, and Buford the table rushed around repairing things so that the ship wouldn't sink. Jason despite being exhausted, flew around the rigging like a blond Peter Pan, putting out fires from the second green explosion that had lit up the sky just above the mainmast.