EDITED: 5/20/2013
Perseus: Master of the Elements
CAMP JUPITER
A bold move, Percy thought. Hijack my bed, will ya? "Well then." Percy got up and went to Piper's bed. He got underneath the covers and smiled at Piper's reaction. "I'll take yours."
"Well then, Perseus Jackson," Piper said. "Good night."
Percy laughed and said, "Don't let the bed bugs bite."
- Ω -
PERCY woke up to the sound of explosions. He ripped the curtain that separated him from Piper and found that she was upright in her bed, probably woken by the same sound. Percy ran out of bed and looked through the giant glass window and gasped at what he saw. The Argo II had crash-landed in the middle of a battlefield.
"What in HADES… how the hell are we already here!" Percy yelled.
A demigod burst into the room. "Sir," he said. "We have crash-landed in the middle of the Fields of Mars!"
"WHAT!" Piper screamed. She pulled out her weapon, Katoptris. The blade gleamed beautifully in the sunlight and looked more like a mirror than a weapon.
"Stay calm Pipes," Percy commanded. He drew out Riptide, and his eyes darkened. "Tell them to form that position that Annabeth always talks about!"
The demigod started. "You mean—"
They were interrupted by a tremendous BANG! The entire ship shook. "We have to get out of here," The demigod said. "This place about to blow!"
Percy nodded feverishly and he stabbed through the glass window. It shattered into a million pieces and Percy, Piper, and the demigod climbed out through the window. To Percy's relief, all of the demigods were outside of the ship; those three were the last ones out. The Argo II exploded in a massive fireball, and Percy raised a protective water shield that protected them from shrapnel and fire.
The lieutenant, Jake Mason, the former head counselor of the Hephaestus cabin, came up. "Percy, what should we do?"
"Fight our way towards the Romans, then we can regroup and all that bashizzle," Percy replied. He wasn't the best person on battle tactics.
"Got it. SOLDIERS!" Jake shouted. "TO PERCY JACKSON! FOR OLYMPUS!"
The soldiers cheered loudly and crashed into the enemy, hacking away at hellhounds and dracaenae. They all headed in one direction: towards the Roman banners near the barracks. Piper fought through the monsters quickly and efficiently, she had gotten better at sword fighting. It also helped that she radiated beauty and no monster tried to kill her even though she was stabbing at them.
She heard Jake's voice over the din. "Twenty yards to the right! Shift twenty yards to the right!"
Confused, she checked out her left flank to see what made the demigods shift when she got hit full force by a tidal wave that came out of nowhere. She was thrown ten feet towards the right and landed with a painful Oof. After checking to make sure nothing was broken, Piper looked at the source of the giant tidal wave, but all she could see was a dark figure all alone in a huge storm. Lightning flashed and thunder roared, there were clouds and rain whereas the rest of the battlefield was in bright daylight.
Percy Jackson stood in the middle of a giant hurricane. Piper could feel the winds from where she was, probably fifty yards away from Percy. The hurricane radiated pure energy, and all the monsters in the Fields of Mars knew who was at the epicenter of it. Piper saw lightning near the Roman banners. She knew who caused the lightning. Jason Grace.
Percy Jackson ripped through the enemy lines, causing major chaos and confusion. The battle raged all around them, but after an hour of fighting the demigods started pushing the monsters back. The monsters organized a retreat, and they all retreated back to their home base, a large fortification in the middle of the Fields of Mars. It had a towering twenty-foot wall of earth and mud, and Piper couldn't see beyond that.
The Greeks merged into the Roman's lines. Cheers could be heard from the demigods as Percy calmed down the hurricane. Apologetically, Percy approached Piper and said, "Sorry about that."
Piper smiled. "Sorry about what?"
"Well," Percy glanced at his feet, embarrassed. "I kind of hit you with a wave…"
"It doesn't matter. We won!" Piper said happily and hugged Percy. Percy awkwardly patted her on the back, trying to not be distracted by Piper's intoxicating scent.
A voice interrupted Piper's happy streak. "No, they'll be back. There are more monsters than we can count in that fortification."
Percy stopped hugging Piper and looked at the person who had just spoken. "Frank!"
He gave Frank Zhang a manly hug. Hazel Levesque, Frank's girlfriend, appeared next to Frank in an explosion of darkness, shadows seeping out of nowhere. Percy also gave her a hug, and just to spite Frank, a kiss on the forehead. When Hazel wasn't looking, Frank punched Percy in the gut, effectively knocking the wind out of him.
"Jason and Reyna will be so happy to see you guys," Hazel said, glancing at Percy rubbing his stomach and Piper nervously playing with her hair. "How many demigods did you bring?"
"Fifty demigods," Piper answered for Percy.
Frank raised his eyebrows. "Cheap Greeks," he jested.
"Hey," Percy said defensively. "Forty demigods defended Olympus from Kronos."
The four walked side by side towards the barracks. Hazel briefed Percy on the situation. "The other Greek soldiers have already regrouped with our soldiers. Although you two were still on the battlefield, for some odd reason."
"We have two armies. One of them is Jason's army, and the other is Reyna's. The Praetors split up. The larger army defends Temple Hill and New Rome, which is Reyna's army. Jason's army guards the barracks." Frank finished for her.
"So right now we are heading towards Jason's army?" Percy concluded.
"Yes," Hazel confirmed. "Our infantry sustained heavy losses, but our horsemen units are almost intact. We haven't lost a single archer yet and the siege equipment is in order and—"
"Holdup," Piper, who had been silent this entire time, said. "Siege equipment?"
"Of course," Frank said. "How else are we gonna get rid of that giant piece of shit in the middle of the fields—"
"Frank! Language!" Hazel cried indignantly. After a long speech about how cursing is horrible and wrong, Hazel said, "We plan on attacking the fortification, also known as the Bunker, simultaneously with Reyna's army."
"The Bunker?" Percy asked incredulously. "Couldn't have come up with a better name?"
"Sorry, whatever," Hazel snapped. "Anyways, we're here."
Percy was just about to ask where when he was suddenly engulfed in a manly hug. "I'm so glad you came!" Whoever it was said excitedly.
"My pleasure, Jason," Piper said with a hint of coldness.
"And you too, Piper," Jason said happily, ignoring Piper's tone. "I'm so glad both of you came."
Piper nodded. Percy smiled at Jason and Jason grinned goofily. "If it weren't for you guys, we would have been defeated out there. How many demigods did you bring?"
"Fifty," Percy answered tersely. Jason's eyebrows went up.
"Only fifty?" Jason asked, hoping that Percy was joking.
"Why do you ask that?" Percy retorted icily. "New York was held against Kronos with only forty demigods."
"It's just that my army," Jason replied, emphasizing the words my army, "Consists of roughly one-hundred demigods, tree spirits, and Amazons as of now."
"Impressive," Piper said. "How many did you start with?"
Jason smiled sadly. "One-fifty three. Luckily, most of them are just wounded, not dead."
Percy saw the sad smile on Jason's face and quickly decided to change the subject. "How about Reyna?" At the mention of Reyna's name, Piper stiffened, and Percy swung a protective arm around her shoulder and hugged Piper close. Surprisingly, Piper let his arm stay there.
Jason's eyebrows arched again when Percy did this. "Well, according to her reports, she has a little bit over fifty demigods but hordes of undead skeletons and two hundred Party Ponies."
"So, what's the game plan?" Percy asked.
Jason laughed heartily. "Jesus, you sound like Annabeth. Speaking of which, where is she? It isn't like her to miss out on a battle."
"I don't know, she's been acting kind of weird lately," Piper answered.
Jason nodded and Percy's lips pulled into a tight smile. Suddenly, Percy heard drums beating. He turned around and saw a lot of monsters gathered in front of the demigods, just out of arrow reach. Then, the giant crowd of monsters parted and a huge, roaring beast emerged. It had the head and body of a lion, except a goat's head emerged from its torso. The beast's tail was a snake, spitting venom and occasionally fire.
Percy shuddered. It was the Chimera. All the way across the field, the Chimera's six eyes all looked around for someone. Then, Percy looked straight into the eyes of the beast. It was out for his blood. The Chimera roared, but then a commanding voice roared even louder, "Down!"
The monsters parted again, and a dracaenae emerged. From the torso and up it was a beautiful woman, but underneath was a large, serpentine tail that oozed acid. It's large, green eyes focused on one person only: Percy Jackson.
"Perseus Jackson! I, Echidna, challenge you to a fight! My daughter will fight you to the death!" Echidna roared, a deafening roar that shook the ground Percy stood on. Piper looked worriedly at Percy.
All the demigods' eyes were on him, waiting for him to make a decision. "If you don't accept, Perseus Jackson, I will send all of my troops to swarm you puny demigods."
Percy looked at Jason, nodding. Jason grabbed Percy's shoulders. "Don't go, it's probably a trap, I can't let you—"
"Jason, if I don't go, everybody is going to die. Plus, I've faced the monster before." Percy interrupted him. He shook off Jason's hands and looked at Piper. Piper looked down at the ground, and she hugged him and pecked his lips. Percy's brain exploded.
"Good luck, Percy," Piper said. Percy recovered from his mental spasm and nodded and stepped past the front lines, the soldiers parting, staring at him with fear and awe.
Jason frowned. "Is there… anything going on between you and Percy?"
Piper stayed silent for a while, still slightly in shock of her impulsiveness. "Why do you ask?" She said defensively.
"It's just… that's… well you kissed him… and I—"
"What's your point?" Piper demanded icily, hatred coursing through her words.
"Never mind," Jason mumbled meekly.
PERCY stumbled towards Echidna and Chimera, still shocked by Piper's kiss. He didn't know whether or not to be intoxicated or angry, angry because he has a girlfriend or intoxicated because, well, Piper was a pretty beautiful girl... Percy didn't know whether or not to hate or love the kiss.
He didn't have time to decided. A voice full of hatred interrupted his thinking. "You slayed my children, the Nemean lion and the Hydra. I will have you killed!"
The Chimera roared and leaped forward spitting fire and poison. Percy uncapped Riptide and rolled to the side, barely avoiding a plume of fire, but it still singed off part of his shirt. The Chimera roared when it missed, and attempted to tackle Percy. Percy rolled right underneath it, but the snake end bit his left arm. Pain shot up Percy's arm, yet before the snake could inject poison into his arm, he lopped off its head with one stroke with Riptide.
The Chimera screeched and veered off, retreating a safe distance from Percy. Acidic blood dripped out of the tail, and the Chimera growled, giving Percy a little time to inspect his wounds. His left arm felt as if it was on fire, but luckily Percy had cut off the snakehead before it had injected him with poison, otherwise Percy would be in a bad situation right now. Or at least worse than the one he is in right now.
The demigods watched on, not daring to intervene.
Great, Percy thought. One head down, two to go. The Chimera charged again, catching Percy by surprise and one of its paws caught Percy in the chest, sending him tumbling into a pool of water. Instantly he felt refreshed, and he got an idea. Percy got up from the pool of water, completely dry, and the Chimera retreated once again, for it was a smart animal and knew that it was dangerous to fight Percy in his home territory.
Percy closed his eyes and pictured the entire Fields of Mars flooded with water at least a foot deep. He felt a familiar tug in his gut and heard the roar of water behind him. Percy turned around saw a massive high tidal wave barrel through the Fields of Mars, wiping out monsters as it went. He remained perfectly dry, but the demigods watching him were soaked to the bones, shivering in the wind.
The Chimera, sensing its defeat nearing, retreated even further, but now Percy was in his home territory: water. Percy head on charge the Chimera, running on top of the water, no, gliding was more like it. Water leaped into the air with him, rushing around him and encasing him inside a giant water statue. The Chimera shot flames at him, but the water that was protecting Percy doused the fire. The Chimera whimpered and started to run, but Percy picked it up with his fists made of water and started to drown it. The Chimera was enveloped in a water sphere, crying and spitting acid and flames until at last it vaporized into dust, turning the blue water into a misty golden color.
The water statue dispersed, and Percy fell to the ground, exhausted from using up so much energy. The one foot deep water rejuvenated him a little bit, but Percy was still exhausted.
"Retreat back to home base!" Echidna roared, keeping to her promise. The monsters orderly retreated along with Echidna.
Percy's vision was getting a little bit foggy, and he felt like he should really take a nap. Before he closed his eyes, he saw Frank and Hazel rushing towards him, Frank with ambrosia and Hazel with bandages.
And then he passed out.
PERCY woke up in the infirmary in the barracks. The first thing he saw was Piper and Hazel dozing off in a corner of the room. He yawned and tried to get up by using his arms only, but then pain shot up his left arm and he remembered what had happened earlier. Landing in the middle of the battlefield, drowning the Chimera, kissing Piper.
Oh shit, Percy thought. If Annabeth found out... why did Piper kiss me in the first place? Gods damn it this is going to cause soo much shit—
"Oh Percy," Piper said. "You're awake." She flushed red, hoping that he wouldn't remember her rash decision of kissing him. After all, Percy still had a girlfriend. Well, a girlfriend who cheated on him, but still, Percy a) doesn't know, and b) still loves Annabeth.
Percy remained silent for a few moments. The only sounds in the room were Hazel's light breathing. Then Percy sighed. "Why did you do it, Piper?" Piper flushed a deeper red.
"Do what?" She feigned ignorance.
"You know pretty much damn what I mean," Percy said. "Why'd you kiss me?"
Before Piper had a chance to respond, Percy continued. "You know I have a girlfriend, right?"
"Yeah." Needless to say, he had a cheating girlfriend. But Percy didn't know that.
Percy looked at Piper for a while. "Just don't do that again." Piper nodded, not daring to meet the piercing sea green eyes.
"Why'd you do it?"
Piper shrugged and didn't answer.
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as the last one! And I was so excited to see how many people put this story as a favorite or followed it, and I am really glad to see the 40+ reviews it got on the first and second day it was up!
REVIEW!