*You are reading the EPIC-LY latest edition of the fourth chapter, which includes an in-flight sentence spacing for your viewing pleasure, courtesy of the captain, Leo Valdez*
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO nor HOO, now read my story! :D
Hazel
Hazel was still suspicious of the Laelaps or the dog. She was just going to call it 'the dog' for Laelaps was just too difficult to pronounce. She was still wary of it being a 1940s girl, why would a bloodhound suddenly be found on the ship for no clear reason?
Hazel didn't think Leo would've brought a bloodhound on the ship. They didn't need a watch dog. Coach Hedge was good enough as one. Hazel would never tell Coach Hedge in the face, but she found him rather intimidating.
Though not as intimidating as her third grade teacher Mrs Leer. She was the most unreasonable person she'd met in her life. Well, her past life that is. Hazel had met more unreasonable people in this life than in the past.
Leo was running all around the ship trying to repair the damaged bits of it as quickly as possible. Leo panted, as he worked, saying, "We never know when another attack may come since Gaia seems bent on stopping us."
"Finally, Leo," Jason said. "You did and said something smart."
Leo stopped his work, and stared at Jason intently and replied indignantly, "Hey! I have said and done something smart before and I suggest you guys get down and help me too so we can repair the damage more quickly instead of you lounging on the deck leaving the work for me to do. None of you are injured badly anyway. Also where's Coach Hedge?"
"Hiya!" Coach Hedge yelled, doing a karate chop move. He had black duct tape taped in a circle around his furry hindquarters like a karate champion's black belt. He was wearing a white tie dyed top along with the duct tape looking like he came from the junk shop.
"DIE! You monster!" He yelled, prancing around the ship waving his wooden club around like a pirate on steroids. Leo rolled his eyes at the satyr and threw a screw at him. "Hey!" Coach Hedge said apparently annoyed at being disturbed from his victory dance.
Piper got up suddenly. Her face was pale and she suddenly spoke, "I don't feel so well, I keep feeling like something is following me and watching my each and every move.
I didn't feel like this before until the time which the eidolons entered the ship and erm 'possessed' Percy, Leo and Jason." This was coming from a child of Aphrodite and with the added doom and gloom in her words, probably because of her charmspeak, the air which hung across the deck of the Argo II felt really scary.
There was an eerie silence penetrating the air, Hazel never heard silence this loud before. Suddenly, she heard a loud CLANG! Hazel had nearly jumped out of her skin and even Jason had appeared startled.
"Sorry guys, I dropped something." Leo had said sheepishly before he turned back to his work. But in a split second before that, his and Hazel's eyes had met.
They'd lingered for a moment too long. Frank had noticed it and was trying to get Hazel's attention. Hazel was sick of this triangle. Leo might've been Sammy's great grandson, but still Frank was her boyfriend.
But Leo's character had reminded her of Sammy, in her past life. He was just as sweet and as impish as he was, which was why Hazel likes Sammy for in the first place. Enough. Hazel told herself. You have more important things to worry about now. She could feel Frank's eyes on her even with her back facing him. Forget the creepy feeling Piper had felt, this was far worse.
Hazel had quickly excused herself, and ran to her room. She slumped down onto her bed and lay there staring up at the ceiling. Suddenly, she felt a cold feeling, exactly like what Piper had mentioned.
Now that she was away from Frank and Leo's attention zone, she felt really creeped out. She could feel invisible pins and needles inserting themselves into her legs, numbing them, making them hard to move.
Hazel started to think. Why did Gaia say that the challenge she was going to give them would be almost impossible to face? They had barely beaten the hydra even with Nico's help, but Hazel still didn't feel right.
Something was wrong, even with the coming of the Laelaps too. No mythical dog would just appear on a ship for no reason. Something had to be wrong. She knew some of the others felt the same way, but they were too afraid to voice it with the dog around, wandering the ship.
She had felt confined and vulnerable like she was in a prison, even with all her friends around her. It was and unearthly force controlling the dog, she could feel it in her gut.
Suddenly, she heard a thud on her bedroom door, then after a few seconds, two more thuds were heard. With a slow groan, the door creaked open revealing the Laelaps standing by the door frame.
It seemed to want Hazel to follow her. Hazel could feel her muscles in her body unwilling chase after the dog while every thought in her brain screamed RUN!(away from the dog of course)
It felt like something was controlling her and she had no choice but to oblige. The bloodhound had led her to the stable for the pegasi, the one with the glass bottom. Once inside, the Laelaps closed the door with its hind foot. Hazel didn't think any dog could do that mythical or not. Suddenly, its eyes glowed golden and it began to transform.
A vaguely humanoid shape started to form out of the shape of the Laelaps, the body of the dog elongated and the head became rounded. The process was indeed just to horrible to watch.
Once the transformation was complete, a man stepped out. He and Nico shared one similar trait, there seemed to be shadows following him around wherever he stepped.
"Finally," the man said. "I am free. I have risen from the Underworld that your father built up ever so strongly and now with Gaia aiding me, I shall finally get my revenge on his pstart son, Nico Di Angelo.
He thwarted my plans in coming back once, but he cannot prevent me forever. For I am King Minos! Since you are here already, I will settle for the daughter of Pluto for my first kill. You are weak, and you cannot stop me!"
Hazel made a quick note in her head. King Minos, wants to kill Nico, but would gladly start with me first equals very bad. Hazel didn't have her spatha with her so she was utterly powerless.
Unless… Her eyes fell onto the glass bottom of the stables. She knew she could open it for Leo had used celestial bronze to make it and precious stones and metals was her specialty.
But how to prevent herself from falling splat into the ground so many miles below? Suddenly, something clicked in her head. She whistled loudly. King Minos looked distastefully at her, saying, "What was that supposed to do, blow my eardrums to pieces? I don't even think your friends could hear you, this place is too near the engine, it would probably drone out your shouts and whistles what not."
King Minos stared at her, a cruel smile playing on his lips, "Now are you ready to die?"
"Not likely," Hazel replied with equal verve. "But are you?" With this, she willed the metal lock holding the floor together to unlock and she plunged both of them tumbling into the vast sky. "You may have saved your friends from me, but you will still die with me. However, unlike me, you will not return to this world!" King Minos said.
At this moment, Arion came swooping down, with a pair of metal wings attached to its back? Must be one of Leo's inventions. Arion caught Hazel neatly in the air and flew at top speed back towards to Argo II. Hazel looked back once, and saw King Minos giving her a look of loathing before he disappeared in the sky. Amazingly, thanks to Leo's invention, Arion could now fly. The bronze wings worked perfectly, and Hazel could also control them with her power.
When Arion landed Hazel at the deck of the ship where everyone was at, she received a few looks of pure shock from her friends. "Explain later," she panted, trying to recover from the speed at which Arion was flying. "But get Leo to build an anti-ghost shield around the ship now!"
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