I don't own the characters of the books. They aren't mine.

Chapter 4

Butch and his crew were all standing right behind us.

"Really Annabeth, you want to mention how Kronos hasn't decided to show his ugly face yet?" No monsters in months, she mentions how slow attacks have been, and suddenly it's like they all decided to have a family reunion. She just rolled her eyes and got into a defensive position. She still had her dagger out from the killer lion attack in the other room.

They all started changing at once. I couldn't keep my eyes on them. Their heads were like serpents. When you tried to look at their bodies, all you could see was one big blur. I had dealt with this kind of thing before, in the woods four years ago. Clarisse had shot it with the cannons on her ship. I had a feeling we couldn't just wait for her to come and save us this time too though. At that moment, the hydra shrieked and spit venom at us turning the linoleum hallway floor into a steaming pile of goop. I jumped out of the way and felt my pocket, but Riptide hadn't come back yet. One of the magical things about my pen is impossible for it to get lost because it always appears back in my pocket. Which is great 'cause I don't exactly have the best track record. Unfortunately, you never know when it will appear back.

I knew enough that I couldn't cut off the heads or they would just grow back twice as many, and that would be a problem, but I didn't know what to do to it. Another shot of poison zoomed past me and the ADHD part of my brain was wondering what kind of cover story we could use for this, how much it would cost to fix all the parts of the school the acid was eating through, and whether or not they would at least allow Paul to continue working there after I was expelled. I looked at Annabeth she was trying to dodge the heads still but I could see that she had been clawed on her thigh and was bleeding. I tried to think of the stories we had heard about hydras. Annabeth was hit again and I ran over and pulled her out of the way before she was soaked in poison.

"You have to cut off the head and burn the tip before the new ones grow back." She said. We dodged another spray.

"What can I use to burn it?" I looked around and saw the office. The principal has a drawer that he puts the all things he confiscates in. "Do you think you can make it to the office over there? The second drawer on the left side of the desk should have at least one lighter in it."

"Got it. Just cover me." She got up and ran to the door. A couple of the heads turned at shot acid her way but she was already in the door. They turned their attention back to me and I continued dodging acid and trying not to get eaten.

Her head popped back out, "Percy!" She grabbed a poster off the wall, rolled it up, and was by my side in a second. A head came at us and I sliced it off. She lit the poster and set the stub on fire. The serpent shrieked and I was sure any moment two more necks would pop out, but nothing happened. I started slashing and she started burning pretty soon there was nothing left. We looked up just in time to see the shocked faces of classmates and teachers leaving cafeteria.

Paul was standing at the front of the group and gave us a you-had-better-get-out-of-here look. We turned and ran through the front doors. We hailed a taxi, which wasn't hard in New York, and Annabeth gave him the address to camp. I looked at her leg and cheek where the Hydra had slashed her.

"It's not as bad as it looks." She reassured me, but she was wincing when she thought I wasn't looking her direction. We could already hear the sirens headed toward the school.

"Looks like I'm going to need another new school. Before long there won't anywhere left that will take me. I just hope Paul doesn't get blamed for this." She gave me an encouraging smile, but it didn't help much. Especially with all the cuts and bruises on her face. We pulled up to Half-Blood Hill.

"Are you sure this is the place?" the taxi driver asked confused.

"This is it." She told him while handing the money over and sliding out of the cab. He had a concerned look on his face but she slipped him a few extra dollar bills and pretty soon we were alone at the base of the knoll. We looked up at camp. We were finally home.