Warriors || Leo Valdez [2]

25

Nothing like total failure to generate great ideas.

Chrysaor couldn't be beat. At least not in single combat. But without his crew... maybe then he could be overwhelmed if enough demigods attacked him at once.

Alex got up slowly.

How to deal with Chrysaor's crew? Alex put the pieces together: the pirates had been turned into dolphin-men millennia ago when they had kidnapped the wrong person. Alex knew that story. Heck, the wrong person in question had threatened to turn her brother into a dolphin. And when Chrysaor said the crew wasn't afraid of anything, one of the dolphins had nervously corrected him. Yes, Chrysaor said. But he's not here.

Percy looked at her and somehow she knew they both had the answer. They both wished Violet hadn't left. 

Percy glanced toward the stern and spotted Frank, in human form, peeking out from behind a ballista, waiting. Alex followed his eyes and resisted the urge to smile. 

The girls... Frank... the ice chest.

It was a crazy idea. 

"Fine!" Percy shouted, so loudly that he got everyone's attention. "Take us away, if our captain will let you."

Chrysaor turned his golden mask. "What captain? My men searched the ship. There is no one else."

If there was something Alex could do, it was causing a scene. She raised her hands dramatically, she winced when saw a still knocked out Leo. "The god appears only when he wishes. But he is our leader, and his daughter is our fiercest warrior. He runs camp half blood. Doesn't he, Annabeth?"

Annabeth was quick to catch on. "Yes!" She nodded enthusiastically. "Mr. D! The great Dionysus!"

A ripple of uneasiness passed through the dolphin-men. One dropped his sword.

"Stand fast!" Chrysaor bellowed. "There is no god on this ship. They are trying to scare you."

"You should be scared!" Alex acted as if she actually cared.

Percy looked at the pirate crew with sympathy. "Dionysus will be severely cranky with you for having delayed our voyage, he cares a great deal about this quest. He will punish all of us. Didn't you notice the girls falling into the wine god's madness?"

Hazel and Piper had stopped the shaking fits. They were sitting on the deck, staring at Percy, but when he glared at them pointedly, they started hamming it up again, trembling and flopping around like fish. The dolphin-men fell over themselves trying to get away from their captives.

"Fakes!" Chrysaor roared. "Shut up, Percy Jackson. Your camp director is not here. He was recalled to Olympus. This is common knowledge."

"HA" Alex pointed to him. 

"So you admit Dionysus is our director!" Percy said.

"He was," Chrysaor corrected. "Everyone knows that."

Percy gestured at the golden warrior like he'd just betrayed himself. "You see? We are doomed. If you don't believe me, let's check the ice chest!"

Percy stormed over to the magical cooler. No one tried to stop him. He knocked open the lid and rummaged through the ice. He was rewarded with a silver-and-red can of soda. He brandished it at the dolphin warriors as if spraying them with bug repellent.

"Behold!" Percy shouted. "The god's chosen beverage. Tremble before the horror of Diet Coke!"

The dolphin-men began to panic. Alex managed not only to keep a straight face, but somehow look terrified of a can of diet coke. They were on the edge of retreat. She could feel it.