BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

57.

"WAKE UP, EDEN!"

Eden's eyes snapped open and suddenly she was on the ground. Her eyes looked up at Piper. "Pipes . . . what—"

"No time! The alarm bell rang!" And then she was gone.

Eden sighed. "What the fuck is happening now?"

She went up to starboard and almost threw up.

The thing 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 Eden had ever had the displeasure to behold.

"What the fuck is that?" Eden screamed.

"That's Shrimpzilla, that's what that is," Percy muttered from beside her.

"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 yelped.

"It wasn't like that!" Hazel protested.

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

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

"Percy! Eden!" Annabeth said. "Can you talk to that thing? Do you know what it is?"

Eden stared up at the thing. "You think I want to fucking talk to that fucking thing?"

Her brother shook his head, clearly mystified. "Maybe it's just curious about the ship. Maybe—"

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

One slammed Percy in the chest and sent him crashing down the steps. Another wrapped around Piper's legs and dragged her, screaming, toward the rail. 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.

Eden drew a sword. She went in and got Piper out, but slowly, because she was still groggy from waking up like that. And also the tentacles kept multiplying the more she cut them, so that was fantastic.

She saw Annabeth and Perfect Jason run through the forest of tentacles, dodging and stabbing at whatever target they could find. She saw Frank pull 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.

Eden winced as she got Piper free, bringing out a gun instead and shooting through three instantly. "You're alright, yeah?" She stared down at her, checking for injuries as she sliced at more tentacles.