The Hidden Pillar of Olympus (PJO Male Reader Insert)

Realizing Something

____________________

Annabeth volunteered to go alone since she had her cap of invisibility, but I adamantly told her not to. Either we all went together, or nobody went. Stronger in numbers.

"Nobody!" Tyson voted, "Please?"

But in the end he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails.

We stopped at our cabin long enough to gather the others stuff. We figured whatever happened, we would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship.

Though that million-dollar bingo sounded very tempting.

We sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's 'YOU ARE HERE' signs toward the admiralty suite.

Annabeth scouted just up ahead invisibly.

We hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people we saw were just glassy-eyed mortal passengers. 

As we came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!" and shoved us into a supply closet. 

We heard a couple of guys coming down the hall.

"You see that Aethiopian Drakon in the cargo hold?," one of them said.

The other laughed, "Yeah, it's awesome."

Annabeth was still invisible, but I could feel her squeeze my arm hard. I should probably recognize one the guys voices or something.

"I hear they got two more coming," the familiar voice said, "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man- no contest!"

The voices faded down the corridor.

"That was Chris Rodriguez!" Annabeth said as she took off her cap, "From Cabin Eleven."

..I only vaguely remember a guy named Chris at camp.

He was one of those undetermined campers who got stuck in the Hermes cabin because his Olympian parent never claimed him.

He definitely wasn't at camp this summer, that's for sure.

"What's another half-blood doing here?," Percy asked, rhetorically.

Though I'm sure we all know why.

Another idiot bowing down to Kronos for power that they most definitely will never get.

We kept going down the corridor.

"Guys," Annabeth stopped suddenly, "Look."

She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship.

At the bottom was the Promenade- a mall full of shops- but that was not what had caught Annabeth's attention.  

A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian Giants, two Hellhounds, and a few Scythian Dracaenae.

"Scythian Dracaenae," Annabeth whispered.

I added, "Dragon women." 

They made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armor who was hacking on a straw dummy. The dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt.

As we watched, the guy in armor stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward. Straw flew everywhere.

The crowd cheered and howled.

At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that clearly looked like they must lead somewhere important.

When we were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped, "Voices inside."