Well, what do you know? I'm back already!
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, or Jeopardy
Hazel's POV
Hazel was getting nervous. There were now only two demigods against one goddess; their chances of victory were narrowing rapidly.
However, if there was one person she could've chosen to be last with, it would be Percy. He always made her feel safe, even in the toughest situations.
"I believe it's our turn to pick the competition now," Percy reminded Ordoa. Then, turning to Hazel, asked, "What do you want to do?"
Hazel thought for a minute. Everything they'd done up to now had been a physical challenge…so why not do something mental?
"Why don't we have a trivia competition?" Hazel suggested. Using both her hands, Ordoa morphed their entire surroundings into a familiar looking game show. The ground was now made up of blue and purple tiles, and the walls were grey and light with blue lights. An internal wall jutted out into the middle of the room, covered in TV screens. The weird part, however, was the wall of black where the audience would usually be. In truth, it wasn't even a wall. It was a long expanse of nothing, just darkness.
"Welcome to Roman Jeopardy!" a loud voice announced, and from behind the TV screen wall walked a man with brilliant white hair and a face that had had one too many plastic surgeries.
"I am Aeolus, the keeper of the winds and your host tonight!" Spreading his arms wide, Aeolus accepted the applause that only he heard. If anything, Hazel might've heard crickets from the black expanse lining the side of the stage they were presently standing on.
"And now…let's meet our contestants!" At his words, three podiums emerged from the shiny tile floor and placed themselves in front of Ordoa, Percy, and Hazel. Each podium had its specific person's name on the front.
"This was unexpected," Percy whispered to Hazel, looking around the Jeopardy set curiously.
"When I asked for trivia, I was planning on a simple Q&A. Not a…not a game show," Hazel replied in wonder at her new surroundings.
She didn't get a response from the son of Poseidon, and that's when she noticed that he'd slipped into a state of extreme concentration, tapping his fingers on the podium and staring off into space. She'd seen that expression on Annabeth before, but rarely on Percy. What's he thinking so hard about? Hazel thought.
"Remember," Aeolus continued into a microphone that was hooked around his ear, "the winner of this competition decides on these lovely two demigods fate!" The god stood smiling at the darkness for a minute before furthering his explanation. "If Miss Ordoa wins, she gets to keep the demigods! If Percy or Hazel win, they will be set free-"
"Excuse me," Percy suddenly called out, pressing his buzzer repeatedly.
Aeolus faltered for a second, not used to being interrupted, before asking, "Uh, yes?"
"I'd like to make a, well, a few adjustments to the deal," he announced. Both Hazel and Ordoa looked at him, expressions of bewilderment showing on their faces.
"Percy! What're you doing?" Hazel whispered sharply to him.
"Don't worry," he murmured back. "I've got this." Clearing his throat, Percy raised his voice again so that he could be heard by Aeolus. "You see, let's say I win this challenge. I get sent home, and Hazel is left here. How will I know that Ordoa here follows up with her promise? With just one demigod left, she may just decide to keep her. No one else would be there to protest or aid in her escape." He paused to let it all sink in. "How about for this next challenge, we go all or nothing? If we win, we're both set free. If we lose, both of us belong to Ordoa."
Hazel was incredulous. Percy, one of her best friends and fellow quester, just bet her freedom on a trivia game. True, that's what they'd been doing all day, but now the stakes were even higher. What was he thinking?
"I like the sound of that!" Aeolus responded in that overly emotional host voice he could so well execute. He then sauntered over to Ordoa's podium, leaning one sky-printed suit arm on her stand. "What do you say, Ordoa? Are you ready to raise the stakes?"
She smirked and glanced over at her two competitors, then answered with, "Of course. I love a good challenge." On the last word, her eyes flashed that startling orange color they tended to glow with before returning back to normal.
"Then let the game begin!" Aeolus declared, walking over to the wall covered in TV screens.
"Percy, are you sure that was the right move?" Hazel questioned him, concern and doubt filling her golden eyes.
Her friend smiled back at her with a grin that didn't reach his eyes. "We'll be fine. Just try your hardest, and no matter what we'll get out of here. I promise." Hazel appreciated his encouraging words, but she could see in his sea-green eyes that he himself was doubtful of their chances. Sighing, Hazel turned to face forward and look at Aeolus.
"We have four categories today, extending from 100-500 points each. Our first category is: Gods and Goddesses!" The wind master pointed at the screen at the top of the first column; the category name flashed into existence on the blue background, and numbers 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 all assigned themselves a screen below it.
"Second category: Famous Heroes!" The same thing happened with the second column.
"Third: Multitudes of Monsters!"
"And lastly, one that seems most fitting to our contestants today: Romans vs. Greeks!"
Aeolus clapped along to the sound of silence, still playing up the charade that there was an audience. Maybe there is an audience in that black abyss, Hazel wondered. Or the sound he's hearing is coming through his ear piece. Either way, Hazel neither saw nor heard anything.
"Out of respect for the Olympian here today, Ordoa shall go first."
The goddess' bright eyes scoured the screens, thinking about which to pick. "Let's start with…Gods and Goddesses for 200." The box marked "200" flashed again to reveal the question, which Aeolus read aloud.
"The goddess of flowers and springtime is _."
"Persephone!" Percy yelled, raising his hand high in the air. Simultaneously, Ordoa hit her buzzer.
"Yes, Ordoa?"
"Prosperina," she answered, using the Roman name of the goddess.
"That is correct! 200 points to Ordoa."
"What?" Percy exclaimed, dropping his hand. "I said it first!"
"I'm sorry, but the rules of the game are that you must buzz in to answer," Aeolus informed him. Rolling his eyes, Percy rested his chin in his hand, propping himself up on the podium.
"It's okay," Hazel consuled him. "We'll get the next one."
He gave her a half-smile but didn't turn his head to look at her.
"Ordoa, your pick again."
She chose Gods and Goddesses for 400. "Jupiter's siblings are _."
Everyone buzzed in, but Ordoa was the quickest. "Juno, Hestia, Ceres, Neptune, and Pluto."
"You are correct!" Ordoa's score bumped up to 600, leaving Hazel and Percy with 0 each.
Ordoa continually won the Gods and Goddesses column until there were none left; next, she picked Heroes for 300.
"Who judged the competition between Minerva, Venus, and Juno for Eris' apple, labeled 'For The Fairest?'"
Buzz. Buzz. Hazel and Ordoa both buzzed in, leaving Percy still trying to figure it out.
"Hazel, you rang in first!" When Aeolus said her name, the daughter of Pluto was indeed caught a bit off-guard. All night all she'd been hearing was "Ordoa, Ordoa, Ordoa!" Finally, it was now her turn.
"Uh…Paris?" she answered.
"Correct!" Hazel's scoreboard changed to 300.
"Nice job," Percy congratulated her. "Keep it up."
"Hazel, would you please pick our next question?" She scanned the wall, searching for one she knew she could get. However, if she went with an easy one, she'd get very few points and also risk Ordoa knowing the answer. If she chose a hard one, she herself might not know it.
"I'll take Romans vs. Greeks for 400, please."
The screen flashed, and Aeolus read, "Romans often use eagles or travel on foot to deliver messages; what do the Greeks use as their quick form of communication?"
Percy started slamming his buzzer as fast as he could, a wild look in his eyes.
"Percy?" Aeolus acknowledged, nodding at the demigod as a signal to answer.
"Iris message! We use Iris messaging!" he exclaimed rapidly.
"You are correct, Mr. Jackson!"
"Yes!" Percy sighed, his score changing to 400. It was now 300 for Hazel, 400 for Percy, and 1500 for Ordoa. They still had a long way to go.
"I pick Monsters for 500," Percy told Aeolus, triggering the question to pop up.
"When Psyche had been destined to marry a 'monster,' who did she mistake to be a beast living with her?"
Ordoa buzzed, followed by Hazel, but not Percy. He was currently biting his lower lip in thought again.
"Who was it, Ordoa?" Aeolus asked.
"Cupid," she replied, seemingly a bit bored.
"Right you are, Ordoa!" The game picked up pace with Ordoa choosing every single question and winning every single question. Hazel and Percy were too slow to beat her lightning fast reflexes, and even if they could react fast enough, half the time they didn't even know the answers.
"Do you think she rigged it?" Percy leaned over and asked her. "There's no way she knows all this stuff."
"Sadly, I think she just happens to know all the answers," Hazel sighed. "You do know that she was alive for all these events?"
"Oh, right," Percy replied as Ordoa gained 500 more points.
"And that's game!" Aeolus suddenly exclaimed, snapping both Hazel and Percy out of their conversation. "Ordoa is the winner!" Confetti spilled out of the ceiling, but even as it rained down in a rainbow of colors they could see the giant, evil grin on Ordoa's face.
"She won?" Hazel coughed. "No. No, no, no…This can't be happening!" She looked at Percy, completely dumbfounded. She had hoped to find some sort of reassurance from him, but he looked pale with disbelief and fear. The Jeopardy scene melted away, revealing the grassy stadium floor of Ordoa's Temple once again, this time with the sun setting above and washing everything in a purple and orange light. Aeolus was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm so glad you made that extra change in our deal, Percy," Ordoa smiled with malice. "It made my job a lot easier."
Hazel fumbled for Percy's hand, anxiety seizing her body and threatening to make her pass out.
This could not be happening. It just couldn't! She was…She was stuck here for the rest of her life? As a slave to Ordoa, the Queen of Jerks? No. She'd rather die again then serve this horrid goddess. Percy squeezed her hand, possibly to reassure her or maybe to reassure himself, though there was nothing to be reassured of. Hazel knew their fate. She knew that she now was a prisoner of Ordoa. She had made a risky deal and had lost.
Ordoa snapped her fingers, and five nymphs stepped out into the light. Each nymph grabbed an arm of the demigods so that now they were unable to run away. The last nymph held…he held a rod with a heated red tip in the shape of a laurel and chains. It was a branding rod. Oh gods. Oh gods, oh gods. Oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods-
"Mark them," Ordoa ordered the nymph, and reluctantly the dryad approached Percy first. The nymph who held his right arm thrust it out forward, revealing his Roman tattoos of one line and a trident.
"It looks like you've done this before," Ordoa remarked. "This should be a snap then…"
The nymph took one more step closer, then all chaos broke loose. Percy launched his leg behind him, kicking one of the nymphs in the groin. The second he punched square in the face with his free hand. Hazel followed his lead and jerked her arms forward, breaking the weak nymphs' grip on her. She whipped around and tripped them, kicking them behind the knees to make them collapse.
"C'mon!" she yelled to Percy, and together they sprinted off.
"Come back here!" Ordoa screeched, but the half-bloods tuned out her angry shouts and sprinted even harder.
"Where…are we going?" Percy panted between his breaths.
"Anywhere!" Hazel panted back. She noticed a staircase off to the side that led up to the first ring of balconies, and she ran straight for it. Glancing behind her, Hazel saw that Ordoa was steadily gaining on them. It would be impossible to outrun her for very long. That's when an idea formed in Hazel's head.
She remembered something from school when she had studied mythology. There had been a story about a maiden named Atalanta. She was prophecied to die when she was married, so she vowed to be single forever. Unfortunately for her, she was a pretty woman with many suitors. She had set up a race, and whoever beat her in it would win her hand in marriage. No one could complete this challenge, until one day a guy named Hippomenes tried. He'd asked Venus for help, and the goddess of love had supplied him with three golden apples. Hippomenes had used them to distract Atalanta during the race, each one thrown on the ground would cause her to stop and pick it up. These distractions let Hippomenes win the race.
The way she saw it, Hazel and Percy represented Hippomenes, and Ordoa was Atalanta. Hazel could summon gold, so why wouldn't that distract Ordoa just like in the story? As they ran, Hazel held her hand out behind her, sensing underneath for any minerals or jewels- anything. The ground rumbled, and up sprouted a golden nugget.
Ordoa ignored it and ran around, not losing any time in her race to catch Percy and Hazel.
Alright, that didn't work. New tactic. This time, Hazel summoned a giant chunk of gold, and it shot out of the ground right in front of their pursuer. The nugget was knee-height, and it had arrived so suddenly that Ordoa ran straight into it, face planting hard into the ground.
Hazel heard Percy laugh, and she turned to face forward to see Percy's mischevious smile. "Nice trick you got there," Percy laughed.
Hazel smiled back and couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of seeing a goddess completely eat it. "Thanks," she replied, still laughing.
They finally reached the steps and climbed up them as fast as they could, feet pounding on the stone and echoing around the tower.
Standing at the top, the two demigods paused to catch their breath. Hazel looked up to see Ordoa running towards them again, even more enraged than before. "YOU DARE TRIP A-"
The goddess was cut off by a second lump of gold popping up and tripping her once again. Hazel heard her face smack against the field, and her legs flew up and over her body so that she did a back bend and plopped onto the ground.
Hazel and Percy broke into a fit of laughter, clinging to the railing on their left to keep from falling over.
"Oh my gods…" Hazel laughed, wiping at her eyes.
"That's comedy gold!" Percy exclaimed, clutching his stomach as he continued cracking up.
"Pun intended?" Hazel asked, finally slowing down her laughter. Her cheeks hurt from smiling, and Percy's face was red from the running and laughing.
"I guess it was," he grinned, taking a deep breath.
All of a sudden, a loud BOOM shook the temple, and the wall opposite from the half-bloods exploded, sending dust and rubble everywhere. What the Pluto? Hazel thought, stunned by the sudden explosion.
"LOOK OUT!" Percy screamed, and he grabbed Hazel around the waist and ducked away from the debris, shielding her with his body. Through the smoke and dust, Hazel could make out a giant warship sailing through.
"Did someone order a pizza?" an all too familiar voice called out. "One with an extra large side of butt whooping and a diet revenge?"
"Leo!" Percy and Hazel called, getting up and peering through the kicked-up dust to look at the Argo II.
"At your service!" he called from the helm, saluting them and grinning wildly.
I must stop here for today. I hope you all liked it! Also, I am very sad to say that...
The next chapter will be the finale. If anything, it'll be Part 1 of the finale of Ordoa's Arena. :(
Still, there's only so much I can do with this story, and to drag it on past its limits is worse than finishing it at the most oppertune time.
Please read, review, follow, and/or favorite! Until next time,
-8DemigodRunner8
PS: The idea of having an 'artillery' come in and save the two demigods was by Guthans. He did suggest that the Olympians come in, but I decided to have it be the Argo II for reasons that will be revealed in the next chapter. Thanks again, Guthans!