𝑨𝑪𝑻 𝑶𝑵𝑬 ━ 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑬𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻

𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐁𝐄 sailing in a ship with Percy, Annabeth and Tyson, but what could she do about it? Nothing, she could do absolutely nothing about it. She'd been on a cruise ship before, it had been one of the many vacations her and her father went on. The ladder that they had climbed upon led to a maintenance deck stacked with yellow lifeboats. There was a set of locked double doors, which Iris managed to pry open with her knife and a fair amount of cursing in Ancient Greek.

Percy figured they'd have to sneak around, being stowaways and all, but after checking a few corridors and peering over a balcony into a huge central promenade lined with closed shops, he began to realize there was nobody to hide from.

Was it the middle of the night, sure but they walked half the length of the boat and met no one. They passed forty or fifty cabin doors and heard no sound behind any of them."It's a ghost ship," Percy murmured.

"No," Tyson said, fiddling with the strap of his duffel bag. "Bad smell."

Annabeth frowned as Iris nodded in agreement to what Annabeth added but said nothing. "I don't smell anything."

"Cyclopes are like satyrs," Percy said. "They can smell monsters. Isn't that right, Tyson?" He nodded nervously. Now that they were away from Camp Half-Blood, the Mist had distorted his face again. Unless you'd be concentrated very hard, it seemed that he had two eyes instead of one.

"Okay," Annabeth said. "So what exactly do you smell?"

"Something bad," Tyson answered.

"Great," Annabeth grumbled. "That clears it up."

They came outside on the swimming pool level, there were rows of empty deck chairs and a bar closed off with a chain curtain. The water in the pool glowed eerily, sloshing back and forth from the motion of the ship. Above them fore and aft were more levels—a climbing wall, a putt-putt golf course, a revolving restaurant, but no sign of life. "We need a hiding place," Percy said. "Somewhere safe to sleep."

"Sleep," Annabeth and Iris agreed wearily at the same time not notice the visual confusion in Percy's eyes at the two speaking at the same time, it wasn't uncommon for the two.

They explored a few more corridors until they found an empty suite on the ninth level. Iris wasn't very keen on staying on an abandoned ship but she couldn't change anything. The door was open, which was weird, there was a basket of chocolate goodies on the table, an iced-down bottle of sparkling cider on the nightstand, and a mint on the pillow with a handwritten note that said: Enjoy your cruise!

They opened their duffel bags for the first time and found that Hermes really had thought of everything—extra clothes, toiletries, camp rations, a Ziploc bag full of cash, a leather pouch full of golden drachmas. He'd even managed to pack Tyson's oilcloth with his tools and metal bits, and Annabeth's cap of invisibility and Iris's sword and bow & arrow, which made them all feel a lot better.

"I'll be next door," Iris said as she gestured for Annabeth to follow her. "You guys don't drink or eat anything."

"You think this place is enchanted?"

She frowned. "I don't know. Something isn't right. Just...be careful." They locked their doors.

Tyson crashed on the couch. He tinkered for a few minutes on his metalworking project— which he still wouldn't show them to Percy—but soon enough he was yawning. He wrapped up his oilcloth and passed out. Percy later fell asleep as well while the girls slept an hour later.

Iris woke to a ship's whistle and a voice on the intercom—some guy with an Australian accent who sounded way too happy, what was wrong with him? thought Iris as she tried to gently wake Annabeth up.

"Good morning, passengers! We'll be at sea all day today. Excellent weather for the poolside mambo party! Don't forget million-dollar bingo in the Kraken Lounge at one o'clock, and for our special guests, disemboweling practice on the Promenade!"

In the other room, Percy sat up in his bed. "What did he say?"

Tyson groaned, still half asleep. He was lying facedown on the couch, his feet so far over the edge they were in the bathroom doorway. "The happy man said...bowling practice?"

Percy hoped he was right, but then there was an urgent knock on the suite's interior door. Iris and Annabeth stuck their heads in,"Disemboweling practice?"

Once the group were all dressed, they ventured out into the ship and were surprised to see other people. A dozen senior citizens were heading to breakfast. A dad was taking his kids to the pool for a morning swim. Crew members in crisp white uniforms strolled the deck, tipping their hats to the passengers.

Nobody asked who we were. Nobody paid us much attention. But there was something wrong. As the family of swimmers passed us, the dad told his kids: "We are on a cruise. We are having fun."

"Yes," his three kids said in unison, their expressions blank. "We are having a blast. We will swim in the pool." They wandered off completely neutral and calm. Weird, thought Iris as she looked at the kids. "Good morning," a crew member told us, his eyes glazed. "We are all enjoying ourselves aboard the Princess Andromeda. Have a nice day." He drifted away.

Unable to resist the curiosity that flooded through Iris's veins, she walked towards the crew member and asked her for directions, she didn't need them — she just wanted to know what would happen. The crew member slowly turned to her and repeated the same sentence he had said before hand.

"Percy, this is weird," Annabeth whispered as she saw Iris walk back. "They're all in some kind of trance."

Then they passed a cafeteria and saw their first monster, the group wasn't actually prepared to see them. It was a hellhound—a black mastiff with its front paws up on the buffet line and its muzzle buried in the scrambled eggs. It must've been young, because it was small compared to most—no bigger than a grizzly bear.

The weird thing was: a middle-aged couple was standing in the buffet line right behind the devil dog, patiently waiting their turn for the eggs. They didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.

"Not hungry anymore," Tyson murmured, before anybody could reply, a reptilian voice came from down the corridor, "Ssssix more joined yesssterday."

Annabeth gestured frantically toward the nearest hiding place—the women's room—and all four of them ducked inside without a second thought. Something—or more like two somethings—slithered past the bathroom door, making sounds like sandpaper against the carpet.

"Yesss," a second reptilian voice said. "He drawssss them. Ssssoon we will be sssstrong." The things slithered into the cafeteria with a cold hissing that might have been snake laughter.

Iris looked at Percy and said. "We have to get out of here."

"You think I want to be in the girls' restroom?"

"I mean the ship, Percy! We have to get off the ship." exclaimed Iris as she looked up at him in disbelief.

"Smells bad," Tyson agreed. "And dogs eat all the eggs. Annabeth is right. We must leave the restroom and ship."

Then Percy heard another voice outside — one that chilled him worse than any monster's. "—only a matter of time. Don't push me, Agrius!" It was Luke, beyond a doubt. Percy could never forget his voice.

"I'm not pushing you!" another guy growled. His voice was deeper and even angrier than Luke's. "I'm just saying, if this gamble doesn't pay off—"

It sounded like they were just arguing by the way their voices were. Iris could understand how and why Luke would be here in the first place. "It'll pay off," Luke snapped. "They'll take the bait. Now, come, we've got to get to the admiralty suite and check on the casket."

Their voices receded down the corridor as Tyson whimpered. "Leave now?" Iris knew they couldn't, it would be a loss. Why was Luke here, what did he want? They needed to know.

Iris, Annabeth and Percy exchanged looks and came to a silent agreement. "We can't," Percy told Tyson. "We have to find out what Luke is up to," Annabeth agreed. "And if possible, we're going to beat him up, bind him in chains, and drag him to Mount Olympus." added Iris as she looked at Annabeth in agreement.

𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐇 𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐎 𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐃 since they had the cap of invisibility and an sheer cloak that was something Iris's mother gave to her — it made creatures and humans around her believe it is something else. But Percy convinced them it was too dangerous, they either all went together, or nobody went. Iris wanted to argue but she got restrained by Annabeth.

"Nobody!" Tyson voted. "Please?"

But in the end he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails. They stopped at their cabin long enough to gather their stuff. They figured whatever happened, they would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if they did have million-dollar bingo.

The group sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth and Iris scouted ahead invisibly. Percy and Tyson just hid whenever someone passed by, but most of the people we saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers.

As they came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed,"Hide!" and shoved them into a supply closet. Iris muttered an, 'ouch' as she rubbed her arm. She had been thrown towards Percy who cushioned her fall.

Percy 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 and Iris were still invisible, but Iris squeezed Percy's arm hard. Iris got a feeling she knew that second guy's voice. "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 took off her cap and turned visible. "You remember Iris —from Cabin Eleven, he always asked you about Clarisse—," said Annabeth hoping to spark the brunettes memories.

"Yes! Oh my god, how could I forget—," added Iris when Percy interrupted her and asked, "He talked to you— that's beside the point, what's another half- blood doing here?"

Iris shook her head, clearly troubled. They kept going down the corridor. Percy didn't need maps anymore to know he was getting close to Luke. He sensed something cold and unpleasant—the presence of evil. "Percy." Annabeth stopped suddenly and said. "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's not what had caught Annabeth's attention.

A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants like the ones who'd attacked me with dodge balls, two hellhounds, and a few even stranger creatures—humanoid females with twin serpent tails instead of legs.
"Scythian Dracaenae," Iris whispered in awe, she hadn't seen them before. "Dragon women."

The monsters made a semicircle around a young guy in Greek armor who was hacking on a straw dummy. A lump formed in Percy's throat when he realized the dummy was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. As they watched, the guy in armor stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward — straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled.
Annabeth stepped away from the window. Her face was ashen.

"Come on," Percy told her, trying to sound braver than he felt. "The sooner we find Luke the better."

At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere important. When they were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped. "Voices inside."

"You can hear that far?" Percy asked looking at the cyclops.

Tyson closed his eye like he was concentrating hard, then his voice changed, becoming a husky approximation of Luke's. "—the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."

Before Percy could react, Tyson's voice changed again, becoming deeper and gruffer, like the other guy we'd heard talking to Luke outside the cafeteria. "You really think the old horseman is gone for good?"

Tyson laughed Luke's laugh. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw."

Annabeth shivered. "Stop that, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy." Tyson opened his eye and looked puzzled. "Just listening."

"Keep going," Percy said. "What else are they saying?" Tyson closed his eye again. Iris wasn't sure how to feel about this, she had a bad feeling and it was usually right.

He hissed in the gruff man's voice: "Quiet!" Then Luke's voice, whispering: "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Tyson said in the gruff voice. "Right outside."

Too late, Percy realized what was happening. He just had time to say, "Run!" when the doors of the stateroom burst open and there was Luke, flanked by two hairy giants armed with javelins, their bronze tips aimed right at our chests.

"Well," Luke said with a crooked smile. "If it isn't my two favorite cousins and my favourite Aphrodite girl. Come right in."

𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐀𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐆𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 to camp was an understatement. She really didn't want to see Luke again, gods! why? thought Iris. "Well," Luke said, spreading his arms proudly. "A little nicer than Cabin Eleven, huh?" He'd changed since the last summer. Instead of Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, he wore a button-down shirt, khaki pants, and leather loafers. His sandy hair, which used to be so unruly, was now clipped short. He looked like an evil male model, showing off what the fashionable college-age villain was wearing to Harvard this year.

He still had the scar under his eye—a jagged white line from his battle with a dragon. And propped against the sofa was his magical sword, Backbiter, glinting strangely with its half-steel, half-Celestial bronze blade that could kill both mortals and monsters.

"Sit," he told them, he waved his hand and three dining chairs scooted themselves into the center of the room. None of them sat. Luke's large friends were still pointing their javelins at them. They looked like twins, but they weren't human.

They stood about eight feet tall, for one thing, and wore only blue jeans, probably because their enormous chests were already shag-carpeted with thick brown fur. They had claws for fingernails, feet like paws. Their noses were snoutlike, and their teeth were all pointed canines.

"Where are my manners?" Luke said smoothly. "These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you've heard of them."
None of them said anything. Despite the javelins pointed at them, it wasn't the bear twins who scared them.

"You don't know Agrius and Oreius's story?" Luke asked.

"Their mother...well, it's sad, really. I'm surprised you wouldn't know, Iris it involves your own mother," Iris clenched her jaw as she looked at Luke in disgust, "Aphrodite ordered the young woman to fall in love. She refused and ran to Artemis for help. Artemis let her become one of her maiden huntresses, but Aphrodite got her revenge. She bewitched the young woman into falling in love with a bear. When Artemis found out, she abandoned the girl in disgust. Typical of the gods, wouldn't you say? They fight with one another and the poor humans get caught in the middle. The girl's twin sons here, Agrius and Oreius, have no love for Olympus. They like half-bloods well enough, though..."

The two bear twins looked at Iris and she could have sworn she saw sparks in their eyes. She hadn't know about this. "For lunch," Agrius growled. His gruff voice was the one they'd heard talking with Luke earlier.

"Hehe! Hehe!" His brother Oreius laughed, licking his fur-lined lips. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until Luke and Agrius both stared at him.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Agrius growled. "Go punish yourself!" Oreius whimpered. He trudged over to the corner of the room, slumped onto a stool, and banged his forehead against the dining table, making the silver plates rattle.

Luke acted like this was perfectly normal behavior. He made himself comfortable on the sofa and propped his feet up on the coffee table. "Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How's your mom? How's school?"

"You poisoned Thalia's tree." said Percy.

Luke sighed. "Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?"

"How could you?" Annabeth sounded so angry it sounded like she'd explode. "Thalia saved your life! Our lives! How could you dishonor her—"

"I didn't dishonor her!" Luke snapped. "The gods dishonored her, Annabeth! If Thalia were alive, she'd be on my side."

"Liar!" exclaimed Iris in pure rage, what was wrong with him? thought Iris. Luke turned to her and smiled, a terrifying smile.

"If you knew what was coming Iris, sweetheart, you'd understand—" continued Luke.

"I understand you want to destroy the camp!" she yelled, Percy never saw her this mad before but he couldn't help but frown at the nickname. "You're a monster!"

Luke shook his head. "The gods have blinded you. Can't you imagine a world without them, Iris, Annabeth? What good is that ancient history you study? Three thousand years of baggage! The West is rotten to the core. It has to be destroyed. Join me! We can start the world anew. We could use your powers, Iris and your intelligence, Annabeth."

"Because you have none of your own!" yelled Annabeth.

His eyes narrowed. "I know you, Annabeth. You deserve better than tagging along on some hopeless quest to save the camp. Half-Blood Hill will be overrun by monsters within the month. The heroes who survive will have no choice but to join us or be hunted to extinction. You really want to be on a losing team...with company like this?" Luke pointed at Tyson.

"Hey!" Percy said. "Traveling with a Cyclops," Luke chided. "Talk about dishonoring Thalia's memory! I'm surprised at you, Annabeth. You of all people—"

"Stop it!" she shouted.

Percy didn't know what Luke was talking about, but Annabeth buried her head in Iris's shoulder as she looked away from Luke, like she was about to cry.

"Leave her and Iris alone," Percy said. "And leave Tyson out of this."

Luke laughed. "Oh, yeah, I heard. Your father claimed him."

"Yes, Percy, I know all about that. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those coordinates, again...30, 31, 75, 12? You see, I still have friends at camp who keep me posted."

"Spies, you mean."

He shrugged. "How many insults from your father can you stand, Percy? You think he's grateful to you? You think Poseidon cares for you any more than he cares for this monster?" Tyson clenched his fists and made a rumbling sound down in his throat.

Luke just chuckled. "The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?"

"I know what I need to know," Percy managed to say. "Like, who my enemies are."

"Then you're a fool."

Tyson smashed the nearest dining chair to splinters. "Percy is not a fool!" Before anyone could stop him, he charged at Luke. His fists came down toward Luke's head—a double overhead blow that would've knocked a hole in titanium—but the bear twins intercepted. They each caught one of Tyson's arms and stopped him cold. They pushed him back and Tyson stumbled. He fell to the carpet so hard the deck shook.

"Too bad, Cyclops," Luke said. "Looks like my grizzly friends together are more than a match for your strength. Maybe I should let them—"

"Luke," Percy cut in. "Listen to me. Your father sent us."

His face turned the color of pepperoni. "Don't—even—mention him."

"He told us to take this boat. I thought it was just for a ride, but he sent us here to find you. He told me he won't give up on you, no matter how angry you are."

"Angry?" Luke roared. "Give up on me? He abandoned me, Percy! I want Olympus destroyed! Every throne crushed to rubble! You tell Hermes it's going to happen, too. Each time a half-blood joins us, the Olympians grow weaker and we grow stronger. He grows stronger." Luke pointed to the gold sarcophagus...

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❪ ៸ 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 ━━━━━ ! ﹆◞ ❫
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❪ . . . the 8th chapter for LOVE STORY everyone! ❫
❪ . . . this is 3.5k which is a bit less than the other but enjoy, also percy being kinda jealous 😏❫
❪ . . . PLEASE tell me how you guys feel about it ??❫
❪ . . .PLEASE don't be a ghost reader, comment and vote, I love to reply to everyone and interact with my readers, love all of you darlings <33 ❫
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