Percy Jackson Son of Hera and Zeus [BEING REWRITTEN]

Charybdis and Scylla

Percy/Nerva POV:

I woke to alarm bells ringing throughout the ship. The captain's gravelly voice: "All hands on deck! Find Lady Clarisse! Where is that girl?"

Then his ghostly face appeared above me. "Get up, Yankee. Your friends are already above. We are approaching the entrance."

"I'm coming"

James looked around confused. "The entrance to where?"

The captain gave James a skeletal smile. "The Sea of Monsters, of course." 

James stuffed stuff that had survived the Hydra into a sailor's canvas knapsack and slung it over his shoulder. My gut told me We wouldn't be spending that much longer aboard the CSS Birmingham as I started walking upstairs.

All of a sudden something on the ship made me freeze. It was nearby and I was used to it. It was familiar and could feel unpleasant. If I was any less of a man I would go start a fight with one of the dead confederates. I just felt angry, and I only feel this angry when. . .

Instead of going up, I crept to the edge of the ventilation grate and peered down into the boiler deck.

Clarisse was standing right below me, talking to an image that shimmered in the steam from the boilers—a muscular man in black leather biker clothes, with a military haircut, red-tinted sunglasses, and a knife strapped to his side.

My eyes narrowed. It was my brother, an Olympian: Ares, the god of war. 

"I don't want excuses, little girl!" he growled.

"Y-yes, father," Clarisse mumbled.

"You don't want to see me mad, do you?"

"No, father."

"No, father," Ares mimicked. "You're pathetic. I should've let one of my sons take this quest."

"I'll succeed!" Clarisse promised, her voice trembling. "I'll make you proud."

"You'd better," he warned. "You asked me for this quest, girl. If you let that slimeball Waters kid steal it from you, not Jackson either for that matter—" 

"But the Oracle said—"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAID!" Ares bellowed with such force that his image shimmered. "You will succeed. And if you don't..."

He raised his fist. Even though he was only a figure in the steam, Clarisse flinched. "Do we understand each other?" Ares growled.

The alarm bells rang again. I heard voices coming toward me, officers yelling orders to ready the cannons. I crept back from the ventilation grate and made my way upstairs to join the others, I'd talk to her later. 

Clarisse came up the stairs right after me. I have no idea why Ares was acting like that but I had to focus on the quest for now.

She grabbed a pair of binoculars from a zombie officer and peered toward the horizon. "At last. Captain, full steam ahead!" 

I looked in the same direction as she was, but I couldn't see much. The sky was overcast. The air was hazy and humid, like steam from an iron. If I squinted real hard, I could just make out a couple of dark fuzzy splotches in the distance.

I could tell we were somewhere off the coast of northern Florida due to my powers as a son of Zeus and Poseidon, so we'd come as we expected, it was much farther than any mortal ship could have traveled.

The engine groaned as we increased speed. 

Tyson muttered nervously, "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water."