Now Part two of the last chapter.
Chapter 9: A Near Miss.
Part 1 Percy
Percy was getting a bit annoyed with the whole "monsters being reborn" thing. He had already killed Medusa once, and now would make about the fiftieth time he had to kill Stheno and Euryale.
Once Harry had gotten out of ear and eyeshot of what was going on, Percy drew riptide.
"Well if it isn't Aunty Em, Beano, and Muriel." He said in a cocky tone.
"Gah, Jackson!" Medusa sneered (Or at least it looked that way through her veil)
"You again!" Euryale scowled.
"Beano?!" Stheno shouted in a confused tone.
When Percy first fought Stheno, his dyslexia made him think her nametag said "Beano".
"You may have beaten us last time Son of Neptune, but you will die this time." Euryale said in a menacing tone.
"I thought he was the son of Poseidon." Stheno said.
"He is." Medusa said in a dreamy voice, as if she was remembering Percy's dad.
"Are you two sure?" Euryale asked, "He went to the Roman Camp…"
"That was because of Hera's meddling you halfwit." Medusa yelled.
"Wasn't it Juno?" Stheno asked
The gorgons started arguing, and Percy took his chance to attack. He pushed the button on the side of his watch to activate its shield form. At once the shield came out. Percy decided to take Medusa out first, as she was the one with the stone gaze.
Percy threw the shield with all of his might; it easily disconnected from its band and flew towards Medusa, hitting her directly in the forehead before flying back towards Percy. As Medusa fell down, Percy charged.
He caught the shield and placed it back on its band and used the force of his run to kick Euryale in the stomach, and then slam Stheno in the head with his shield. The gorgons crumpled.
"Say cheese!" Medusa's voice said behind Percy.
Percy knew that Medusa had taken off her veil, and if Percy looked at her… well, he really didn't want to be a garden gnome. He noticed Stheno's sample tray lying right in front of him. Hadn't Perseus slain Medusa by looking at her reflection and slashing behind him? Besides, the tray had saved his life before…
He picked up the tray and, after praying to the gods, looked at Medusa's reflection. She wasn't a pretty sight, her eyes were glowing green, her tusks were even larger than Euryale and Stheno's, her skin was dead pale, her hair was a mess of snakes. It was obvious by certain features that she was at one time very beautiful, but now, she was just another hideous monster.
Percy looked at his hand, skin and bone, not stone.
"I can see why you wear that veil." He said
"Gah," Medusa said, "I see you figured out the whole reflection thing. Oh well, I'll get you the old-fashioned way."
She held up her hand, and her nails grew into talons. She charged and Percy dodged to the left. She missed impaling him by mere inches, But her talons managed to cut his stomach. She tried again and he dodged again, this time slashing at, and cutting, her arm. Fighting through a mirror was the most disorienting thing Percy ever did. He would see a tree to hide behind, only to find it was the opposite direction of the way he was going. Medusa was having a hard time keeping up with Percy now that he was able to look at her. But she still was a formidable opponent.
He was doing pretty well until Medusa managed to sneak up on him. One minute, nothing was behind Percy, the next BAM! Medusa appears out of nowhere. Percy attempted to slash at her, but he hadn't reacted fast enough, and she dodged his attack and grabbed his arm, her skin was ice cold. She then threw him into a tree. Riptide flew one way, the snack-tray-mirror flew the other. Percy could see the other two gorgons regaining consciousness, he had to finish this fast. Closing his eyes as tight as he could, Percy felt around for his snack tray and sword, unfortunately, Medusa had other plans. She grabbed him by his hair, which hurt about as much as you'd think, and picked him up.
"You're fortunate that our master wants you alive Perseus Jackson," Medusa cooed, "Otherwise, you'd make a very nice addition to my garden gnome collection."
Percy was really running out of options, he reached into his pockets, hoping that Riptide had reappeared, but he felt something else, a small length of wood, his Wand!
Grabbing it, Percy shoved it at Medusa's head. There was a loud zap, and Medusa dropped him.
"MY EYE!" she screamed.
Percy knew she was behind him, so he took the chance of opening his eyes; Riptide was laying right in front of him. He grabbed the sword and used it as a mirror. Medusa had her back turned to him. this was his best chance to finish her. He began to slash at her, but she turned her head at him. Percy barely had time to turn away. A bear that had come to investigate wasn't so lucky, it reared back with a small roar of shock, slowly his entire body, starting from the eyes, turned to grey stone.
"Stupid bear!" Medusa hissed, "I already have a bear gnome."
She then started to walk towards Percy. He could see from her shadow that Medusa was leaning to grab him again. Percy closed his eyes, turned, and stabbed her in the leg. Medusa roared in pain and collapsed, guessing by the sounds. Percy stood up, stepped to the side and slashed down.
There was a sickening sound of a sword cutting through skin, muscle, and bone, followed by a thud of something heavy hitting the ground.
"MEDUSA!" Euryale and Stheno screamed, apparently fully awake.
Percy looked at Riptide to see Medusa's head. A smart choice, considering it was looking right at Percy. He removed the cloak part of his robes and tossed it on top of the head.
As the last of Medusa's monster dust blew away, Percy turned and saw two very angry looking Gorgons.
"You will pay for killing her again Jackson!" Stheno said, her smiley attitude gone.
"Yessss!" Hissed Euryale, literally, "Our master may have said to bring you alive, but not in how many pieces!"
They drew there talons and charged.
The problem with fighting two ticked-offed Gorgons is that they don't hold back. Percy tried his best to keep them at arm's length. But he couldn't keep them away forever. Slowly they were managing to get him, first Euryale scratched him across the chest, next Stheno managed to rake his arm with her foot (though this was mainly due to Percy not paying attention).
Euryale caught him off guard a second time, threw him, and caused him to land near Medusa's head. This was not going very good. Percy hurt all over and knew if he didn't do something soon, he would become Percy sushi.
"I believe he's had enough Sister." Stheno said.
"Yes, I do believe so." Euryale hissed.
Obviously they didn't notice that Medusa's head laying two feet away from him. Percy decided to grab the cloak covering it, pray that her head was facing away, and pulled the cloak off of her head. All he saw was a mess of snakes. With adrenaline fueling his moves Percy grabbed the top snakes and spun around.
Euryale was quick to react by looking away, but Stheno was not. After about 20 seconds, a Stheno statue stood where the live one was.
"Stheno, you fool…" Euryale began to say to the statue, but Percy interrupted her by throwing his shield at her. It bounced off and smashed the Stheno statue into gold dust. To stop Euryale from getting up, Percy placed his foot on her.
"I think were done here." He said.
"Curse you Son of Neptune…Poseidon…whoever!" Euryale growled, "You will pay for what you have done this day."
"You keep saying that." Percy replied, "But it doesn't look like I'll pay today."
"My Master will get his revenge!"
"That reminds me, who is he?"
To his surprise, Euryale cackled.
"An old friend."
"Thanks," Percy said sarcastically, "that really clears it up."
"He is the bane of Olympus, the True Lord of the world."
"Well if you're not going to be more specific, I think it's time to cut my losses."
Percy slashed Riptide across her face, causing her to dissolve into dust
"Literally."
Percy collapsed. He looked over at the head of Medusa, which he had stuffed back into the cloak. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of parchment, (He didn't know what it was doing in there) and the cap for Riptide. He placed the cap on the pommel of the sword and waited for it to shrink back into pen form. Once it did he used the tree he was leaning against and wrote in bronze ink:
To: Chiron at Camp Half-Blood
From: Percy Jackson
WARNING: contains Medusa's head, handle with care.
Percy then pulled some gold Drachmas, Greek money, out of his pocket and placed it in the robe. He then asked Hermes to deliver it. As the robe faded away, Percy examined the cuts on his chest, stomach, and arm. They weren't very deep, but they were bleeding pretty badly. If he could get to the lake next to the school, the water would heal him instantaneously, (Uhg, he'd been hanging around Annabeth too much).
But as he got up to walk over there, Harry and Professor Dumbledore came up. They looked really surprised to see him with a bunch of cuts and a pen in his hand.
"Uh, hey." He said casually, "'Sup?"
Part 2 Frank
It was official: Frank thought Hogsmeade was awesome! A candy shop, joke shop, pub where they served something called Butterbeer (Don't worry, it wasn't real beer) that was better than any soda out there. Frank was almost sorry to leave. They were heavy laden with prank gear (Mostly for Leo) and a lot of Candy (for Percy and Harry). They went down to the school and were having a pretty good time, until they saw Harry.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked as Harry looked worried about something.
"Percy and me were attacked by some… things," Harry replied.
"WHAT?!" Annabeth yelled, looking terrified, "Is he…?"
"He's fine!" Harry said, "He's in the Hospital Wing."
Without waiting for another word, Annabeth dropped her things and took off. Everyone took off after her.
Percy didn't look very good. His clothes looked like they had been thrown into a lawn mower, he had bandages covering his chest, and a long gash going down his arm. Madame Pomfrey, the nurse, was poking Percy's cut with her wand and muttering words under her breath, causing Percy to flinch.
"I don't understand why it won't heal." She muttered.
"I keep telling you not to worry!" Percy said in an exasperated tone, "Their just cuts."
"Cuts that won't stop bleeding."
"So? Can't you just bandage it up like the other ones?"
"Well maybe, but you'll have to spend the night here."
"Fine."
Madame Pomfrey then wrapped up Percy's arm and finally walked away.
"What happened?" Annabeth asked.
"We were attacked by, uh…" Percy started to say, but then saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione, "Psychotic old women."
"No they weren't." Harry argued, "They had snakes for hair."
Frank almost jumped out of his skin, how would Harry know that?
"What?" Ron asked while chuckling, seemingly thinking Harry was joking, "Snakes for hair?"
"I'm not joking," Harry said, "Ask Percy!"
Percy didn't look like he liked being dragged into this dispute, "I said what I saw Harry."
"Then how'd you get cut?" Harry asked accusingly.
"They had knives." Percy said simply.
"Then why…" Harry began, but he was cut off by Hermione.
"Harry," she said gently, "maybe you were just hallucinating."
"I didn't hallucinate!" Harry yelled.
He looked around as if he was challenging them to say he did. He looked like he was trying to think of a way to prove he hadn't been seeing things, but instead he stormed off.
"Oh dear." Hermione muttered, "I'd better go see if I can calm him down."
She followed after Harry.
Ron noticed that he was the only wizard left.
"Oh, um." He muttered, his ears turning red, "I'll go to."
And he left.
"So what really attacked you guys?" Piper asked.
Percy explained, after making sure Madame Pomfrey wasn't paying attention, about how Harry ran off towards the Forbidden Forest when they heard hissing, and how it turned out to be all three Gorgons. Not just Medusa, not just Euryale, not just Stheno, all three. And finally how he defeated all three in various manners. He ended it with how he interrogated Euryale, and was found by Harry and Professor Dumbledore, after the Gorgons were killed of course.
"The most annoying part?" Percy muttered, "Is that the lake was like a one-in-a-half minute walk! I could of healed and went about my normal business if Harry and Dumbledore didn't find me."
They wanted to continue the topic of the Gorgons, but Madame Pomfrey shooed them away.
"He needs rest." She insisted.
"I wonder who this 'Master' is…" Jason said as they walked to the Great Hall for dinner.
"I don't know…" Annabeth muttered, "According to Percy, Euryale said he was an 'old friend', though she probably meant an enemy."
"That can be anyone from Saturn to Gaea." Hazel pointed out.
"I don't think its Gaea." Jason said "We would've heard her talking to us by now wouldn't we?"
"Yeah," Leo muttered, "I could imagine that: 'Now little heroes, watch as I send the Gorgons to butcher Percy Jackson and Harry Potter'"
They arrived at the Great Hall and it seemed that word of Percy's fight with the "Psychotic Old Women" had spread like wildfire. Everyone was muttering something about it.
"I heard Harry and Professor Dumbledore found him standing there with a pen." whispered a boy from Gryffindor.
"What I want to know is what those women wanted." A girl in Ravenclaw hissed to her friends.
Frank and Hazel sat at the Hufflepuff table while the others sat at the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor.
They ate in silence as everyone around them talked about what happened.
Sorry if the fight scene was choppy, this is the first time I've written a fight scene :P
Also, I know that Percy was able to take on Euryale and Stheno with ease in The Son of Neptune, but that was with the Achilles Curse, which he doesn't have anymore. I also wanted to integrate Medusa's head into the fight. Also I decided to have Percy send the head to Camp Half-Blood to stop students from getting their hands on it. I may not be able to update as much because the ACTs are coming up and I need to study for them, so don't get too upset if it takes me awhile to finish Chapter 10. I'll finish it as soon as I can.
