Thanks for all the reviews, guys! This chapter is the longest chapter written so far, so you guys better enjoy it! *scary eye*
I don't own anything. *falls to knees sobbing*
TooLazyToLogin: This is a Leo and Piper friendship fic. They don't get together. At least, I think they don't... We'll just have to see where the story takes us. *grins*
Leo
Physical Education was always the worst class for Leo. Fortunately for him and his sanity, he had it with Piper.
Their teacher for P.E. was Coach Hedge, the guy who called everyone cupcakes and forced people to call him sir. He carried a bullhorn everywhere, which Leo found extremely unnecessary due to his loud (and, okay, kinda scary) voice, and his favourite pass-time was to torture kids by getting them to perform push-ups everywhere. No one really liked him.
He and Piper had gym on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On the first Wednesday at The Wilderness School there had been a 'Welcome Back From Summer' speech given by the principal during their gym time; on Thursday there had been an emergency all-health-teachers-must-attend meeting during this class; and on Friday Coach Hedge was just yelling at the class the entire period for being three minutes late.
So Wednesday of the second week was the first day they actually did something in P.E., and even that wasn't much. Coach Hedge was taking them on a tour of the aerial course the school shared with this country club a few miles south from the school. So, Wednesday last period, Piper and Leo lined up with nineteen other kids, including that jerk Dylan, and began their three-mile hike.
"This is so pointless," Piper muttered to Leo.
"I know," said Leo, catching sight of Coach Hedge barking something at some poor kid at the front. He re-shouldered his small knapsack, which was beginning to droop a little from his back. "And our teacher is kinda crazy too."
"Kinda!?" Piper demanded. "On Friday, while he was yelling at us, I asked to go to the washroom. Twenty push-ups, he said. Twenty! To go to the freaking washroom!"
"That's just cruel," muttered Leo, shaking his head sadly. "Forcing discipline into our bladders. That should be unlawful."
"He's definitely bonkers," Piper agreed.
Even though they had taken extra caution to whisper, apparently Coach Hedge had very good ears. He whirled around and pointed straight at Piper and Leo, causing them to freeze in their tracks. "You two!" he barked. "Twenty push-ups! Now! On the ground!"
"What?" asked Leo, caught by surprise.
"What, sir!" Hedge yelled. "Fifty push-ups!"
"Why do we need—?" asked Piper, but was cut short.
"One hundred!" yelled Hedge. "One hundred push-ups for the cupcakes!"
Leo and Piper just stood there, stunned, not sure of what they should do.
"EIGHTY HUNDRED FOUR BAJILLION SIXTY MILLION THREE!" Coach Hedge finally decided. "Two thousand...uh, a million...was it...? Never mind! Two hundred push-ups! Each! Now, on the floor!"
Leo and Piper shared a groaning and protesting look, but obeyed their gym teacher and got down on their hands. Leo shrugged off his knapsack and let it fall to the dirt beside him.
"One… Two… Three— Piper! Not a proper push-up! Start over! One… Two… Three… Four… Now continue! And catch up to the class afterwards!" yelled Coach. He whirled around and walked back to the front of the crowd to lead the rest of the class to the aerial course. A few of their classmates snickered at them, a few shot them pitiful looks, but no one stood up for them.
"Coach, sir?" someone asked. It was Dylan.
"What?" Coach Hedge spat, annoyed that he had to be interrupted again.
"Sir, I believe I forgot something at school," he replied. Leo grunted at his tenth push-up. One hundred ninety to go. "May I go retrieve it?"
Hedge pondered this, looking over where they had just come to see how far back the school lay. It was still within jogging distance. "How important is it?" he asked Dylan.
"Very important, sir." Dylan nodded his head gravely.
"...Alright," decided the coach. "Be quick. Now, cupcakes, let us continue our journey!" Dylan headed back as Coach Hedge leaded the group farther off. Leo concentrated on his push-ups. Twenty… Twenty-one… Twenty-two…
Thirty-nine…
Fifty-four…
Sixty-two…
Seventy—
Next to him, Piper gasped and dropped to the floor, exhausted, her face tanned a bright red. Leo guessed he didn't look much better. He stopped and propped himself on his elbows, eventually falling onto his back with a cloud of dust. The wind picked up, and the cold rushing air on Leo's face felt reliving.
"Should we bail?" asked Piper, wiping her brow with the back of her hand, peering back at the direction their class had headed off in.
"No way," said Leo. "That teacher scares me. If he found out we cheated, I have a feeling we'll be doing something a lot worse than two hundred."
Piper considered this. "What did he say? Eighty hundred four bajillion?" Her hand slipped and skidded off the dirt a few inches and she fell onto her back like Leo. "But… one break… Just one break… Say, what did you bring in that sack anyway?"
"Just some bug spray, a metal water bottle, and Chime," he replied.
"With the remote."
"Yeah. She's sort of useless without it."
"I know."
They must have lain there, taking in the bright sun, doing nothing but trying to regain control over their own heartbeats for a while, as Dylan finally returned with nothing extra than a cap on his head. He grinned as he passed by them, taking in the fact that they still weren't finished with pleasure.
"Very important," Piper called out to him.
"You still aren't finished?" he just asked, as if it weren't obvious enough already.
"You try two hundred push-ups in less than five minutes," Leo said to him. Dylan ignored him.
"You can bail," said Dylan. "I won't tell."
"Sure you won't," said Piper, a hint of sarcasm dripping in her voice. She propped herself on her elbows, slipping a little because of the wind that was picking up at a much larger pace. "Listen, Mr. I Think I'm A God—you're just a big jerk who's never had a life, so just go away."
"What?" asked Dylan, sounding mildly surprised. The sun disappeared behind the dark clouds that had appeared from nowhere. Only a minute earlier it had been the sunniest day of autumn. Now it was dark and looked as if it were about to rain, with horrible wind conditions added into the mix. "I think you misunderstand, Piper dear. I'm not a god."
"Well, that's nice to know," Leo told him, the wind carrying his voice a long way. "Piper here is the goddess of Get The Heck Out Of Here, and I'm the god of pwnage and other epic owning."
"And don't call me 'dear'!" Piper snapped, getting to her knees.
Dylan continued as if they hadn't spoken at all. "All the gods are hiding," he growled. His voice was scarier somehow. Less human. "They're all cowards, and to call yourself one would be like condemning yourself to your own death.
"So you see, I'm no god. I'm a monster."
The wind then decided to go to its full power. A current hit Piper and she went skidding on her side seven meters along the dirt path, screaming. Her voice was snuffed out by the rushing winds.
Leo tried to stand but the air stream pushed him back down. He started to swear, but right at "holy pancakes—!" the wind tossed him back a few feet into the air and he landed painfully on his back. His breath was smacked right out of him, and he spent several seconds trying to get air back into his lungs.
Dylan towered over him, but it wasn't the annoying bully-Dylan he knew. From waist up it was a deadly sort-of-human-looking monster made of wind, electricity crackling at the webs of its fingers. The lower half was a whirling twister, hovering several feet above the ground to loom over Leo.
"A fire user," said Dylan calmly as if this thought were contemplative. "Your blood will work wonderfully to awaken the goddess." Leo wanted to ask what the freaking heck was he talking about, but he was still in too much of a shock.
Somewhere beyond, Piper managed to get to her feet only to be pushed back down again. Two more wind monsters from the dark thunderclouds above appeared and cackled in glee, diving down to seize her by the arms. She tried to run away, thrashing and screaming and kicking when one got too close, and these creatures seemed to find this more as entertainment than a threat. Eventually, the left one just hit her with a bolt of electricity and she screamed and fell limp, falling onto her face, her long brown hair whipping in the wind.
"Piper!" Leo yelled, struggling to his feet to pommel the bloody hell out of those... whatever they were, only resulting in being pushed down to his knees.
"Don't worry," Dylan sneered. "She won't be killed... yet."
Leo felt a surge of anger overflow inside of him. He raised a hand that burned white hot and tried to hit Dylan with it, but he only floated away and laughed at his feeble attempt. Leo was too mad to feel guilty about using his power, and in his defense these guys were taking away his best friend—possibly only friend—to who-knows-where and had plans to do the same thing with him to sacrifice to some sleeping goddess. (That's his life for ya.)
"Give it up, demigod," Dylan yelled back. The wind swirling around Leo began to feel tight and limited. He gasped for breath, the fire in his hand burning out. Lack of oxygen, lack of fire, lack of breathing, lack of consciousness, he thought.
Way to keep your smiles up.
Darkness ate the corners of Leo's vision. Everything he could still see was blurry and hazy, as if he were trying to look through a rippling, thick and murky pond. He fell forward, one hand stretched out to keep him from falling onto his face, the other clutching at his failing lungs. Leo looked up at Dylan, but decided that his last blurry view of the world would not be of some monster that was going to go all Mayan on him to sacrifice Leo and Piper to a goddess who shouldn't exist in the first place (Dylan and the goddess), and looked down at the ground instead.
But then his breath and sight returned. He looked up to find Dylan being hit repeatedly on his airy head with a baseball bat, which when he looked closely was actually a long branch with twigs and leaves still attached. Leo found this extremely comical.
And was never more glad to see his gym teacher in his life.
The rest of the class stood nearby, gaping in awe and terror. Piper lay slumped on the grass, having been dropped after Dylan's two friends went to help their leader with the gym teacher problem. Coach Hedge's cap had been blown off, revealing very curly hair and—were those horns!?
Leo's brain received this information, but never processed and examined it carefully enough. Every instinct in him yelled, "Run! Get away from this place! Scramble on your knees if you must!" But Piper was still unconscious on the floor and Chime was still trapped inside his knapsack fifty feet away.
"Take that, cupcake!" The wind carried Hedge's voice all the way to where Leo was. Dylan kept trying to zap the coach with his electricity, but he dodged them nimbly to secure another blow. The other two wind creatures, now seeing Piper as defenseless, went for Leo.
He realized that there was only one way to stop these guys from killing him. A small plan that was 99% likely to fail formed in his head. But that was still better than 100% certain death, so Leo raced over to his knapsack and pulled out Chime.
"Please don't fail me now, girl," he muttered as he flicked the switch that turned her on. Chime's eyes lit up and her wings stretched. Leo pulled out her remote, and barely rolled out of the reach of two electrical blows. Several girls and even a few guys in his class screamed.
Leo got to his feet and bolted, slipping on his knapsack on while doing so. Once or twice he felt lightning bolts kick his heels as he ran, each one encouraging him to run faster.
He finally stopped behind a tree. He paused only half a second to catch his breath, and pulled out Chime's remote and without further delay, flew her up into the air, keeping her there. Seeing that she was made of metal, all lightning attacks were directed towards her. Leo guessed she would survive three or four of them before failing and falling and rendering useless. Enough time, he thought.
Leo reached for his bag, and pulled out the can of bug spray. He skimmed through the contents…
C'mon… c'mon…
Propane. Perfect.
Leo could go into a full-out boring conversation on propane; how it was used for cooking and heaters, and sometimes even aerosol hairspray. For now, though, it would serve as his very own weapon against these terrifying wind monsters.
Once upon a time, Leo had been in the custody of social services for the third time. They had locked him in a room with only a bed, a washroom, and a TV. Extremely bored, the younger Leo flipped through the channels until he came across Avatar: The Last Airbender. Zuko was in the middle of a battle—was it an Agni Kai?—and had shot fire from his hands, and it literally flew fifty meters to his opponent. Leo could not do this, but it was the inspiration for this next plan he was about to try out.
He uncapped the lid on his bug repellent with a flick of his thumb. Leo crawled slowly to his knees as to not attract any attention, and tried lighting his index finger. A small flame appeared for a second, but was quickly snuffed out by the wind.
A second was all Leo needed, though. At least, he hoped so. It would mean he only had one chance to get it right. But what's an epic battle to the death with three flying creatures and a gym teacher with horns and a knocked out princess and mechanical bird and a cursed kid with fire powers without a few high stakes, chances, and probable death?
I'm dead.
He crawled on his hands and knees to where Hedge was whacking all the wind monsters with his branch and calling them cupcakes. Dylan snarled, "You knocked out the boy?" The wind monster nodded, and Dylan smiled toothily.
More like you tried to knock me out but ended up hitting Chime instead, Leo thought.
"Then our work here is done," Dylan finished. He turned to his other partner. "Zap the satyr with a thousand volts. Then grab the girl and boy and let's go."
Leo realized what this meant. He struggled to his feet and held up his index finger before him. He got the bug repellent ready and—
Whoosh.
The wind monsters didn't even know what hit them. A giant wave of flames enveloped them. They all shrieked loudly and covered their faces with their arms for some reason. The wind began to die down.
Dylan managed to swat away the red flames. "Child of fire," he snarled. "I promise you; you will not live to see another day."
"But will you?" Leo asked him, and he let another wave of flames toward the monsters. Dylan's two friends hissed and screeched and were forced to scamper out of the range of fire, flying up into the storm clouds and disappearing.
"Traitors!" Dylan yelled after them. "No problem," he said to himself. "I'll just handle this myself."
Leo thought Dylan was scary before. What he turned into before his very eyes was more than terrifying.
Dylan was now a five-meter tall tornado. His hair swirled around from being blown around so much. His fingertips were so overloaded with electricity that sparks shot off from everywhere. He sprouted dark wings from his back, as if he were an evil angel just returned from Hell. The air that had just begun to settle picked up again, but this time electricity shot down from the sky, the clouds were virtually black, and it began to rain. Dylan's eyes were a blood red, and when he spoke his voice boomed with thunder.
"Child of fire," he spoke in a deep growl. "Your end is near."
Leo dropped his can of bug repellent.
"Give it up," boomed Dylan. "You stand no chance against me!" The tree Leo had once hid behind was torn right off from the roots and was thrown toward the mass of classmates. They all screamed and scattered.
But, wait. Where was Piper?
Dylan seemed to notice as well. "Where is she!?" he roared.
"Looking for me?" she yelled defiantly, her hair whipping around so much it was nearly impossible to see her face. She held Leo's water bottle in her right hand. Dylan grinned.
"Daughter of beauty," he said.
Piper wrinkled her nose. "Flattery won't save you," she yelled.
"No, no," said Dylan, grinning even more at her obliviousness. "Not flattery. Just reference."
As Piper tried to figure this out, a lightning bolt worth a hundred thousand volts shot down from the sky toward her. She seemed to anticipate this, though, and threw the water bottle at Dylan.
Dylan laughed. "A water bottle?" he asked. "Demigods can be so—"
Those were the last words he ever spoke. The water bottle passed right through him, but what he didn't notice was the bolt of his own electricity coursing after it. Lightning goes for tall and metallic, and Leo's water bottle just happened to be a) flying through the sky, and b) made of metal.
Dylan didn't stand a chance.
The storm suddenly ended. The wind died, and the wind spirits disappeared. Coach Hedge stood on the grass stamping on some gold powder that used to be Dylan, yelling, "Take that, you cupcake!"
Piper stood there, breathing heavily. She looked sideways at Leo, and began to cry.
"Ohmigod what was that?" she asked between sobs. "It could have killed us! If you hadn't thought of the bug repellent and I hadn't thought of the water bottle, we could be dead right now! Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod!" She began to hyperventilate.
Coach Hedge finally looked up and grunted. "Good thinking, demigods," he said. "We better get going."
"Whoa whoa whoa," said Leo, putting his hands in a timeout T. "I'm not going anywhere until a few key questions have been answered. One; what were those things? What are you, and where did you say you were taking us?"
"Yeah!" added Piper, fanning her face.
Coach Hedge rolled his eyes. "I was in this exact same position fifteen other times with fifteen different demigods," he said to himself. Then, to Leo and Piper, he added, "Listen, cupcakes, you aren't normal."
"I've got ADHD; of course I'm not!" Leo yelled.
"Yeah!" added Piper, still fanning her face.
Hedge shook his head.
"Explaining this might take a while," he said. "Both of you are too close to hysterics."
"Hysterics!? Hysterics!?" Leo demanded. "We just fought three wind monsters for you, lightning bolts were just hurled at both of us, and me and my best and only friend could have died. I am SO not in hysterics!"
"Yeah!" added Piper, still fanning her face. Leo was beginning to wonder if she even knew what the coach was saying.
"Sounds like hysterics to me," said Coach Hedge calmly. "Look, kid. I'm going to take you to a magical place in the Big Apple for people like you and your girlfriend here."
"SHE'S NOT MY—!"
"In that magical place you will train to survive those terrible monsters you just faced. Why?" He took in a deep breath for the start of a long sentence. "Because you are the son of a Greek god and yes they still exist and I am a satyr so that means I am half goat so I save demigods like you from the bad guys who like to eat you for lunch. Got it?"
Leo sighed. "You're seriously messed up," he told the coach.
Coach Hedge patted him on the back. "Your entire life and everything you've ever known is about to become messed up. C'mon. Let's get you home."
And, yeah, I still watch Avatar... Don't judge me! I'm still twelve! I deserve some bending awesomeness!
I went through so much research and pain for this chapter, so you better leave a review! (C'mon, let's hit thirty!)