AN: Hello again! Just a note for all of the people reading this that speak Chinese, I apologize for any mistakes in the two terms used in this chapter, I got the translations and characters from google translate. (Just because I'm ¾ Asian doesn't mean that I am, let alone can speak, Chinese.)
Disclaimer: If yuo cna raed tihs snetnece, yuo gte a hgih fvie: I dno't onw atnnihyg!
Frank's POV:
First of all, a tip about carrying 10 other people on your back: Avoid doing so. If I wasn't in dragon form, I probably would've been in pancake form.
Anyways, to make sure I didn't scare any tributes too much, I descended as slowly as possible. Jason and Leo got down first which gave them time to warn mortals to get the crud out of the place.
I landed in the middle of a road that was relatively empty. Most people were at home watching the Games, and the few people that were on the road had run for their lives. Once all of the tributes had gotten off my back, I turned back to a human and stretched my back out.
"Geez. Valdez, when we get back to our time, you're going to tell your dragon that you're sorry because it is not easy flying a bunch of people around."
"Got it. Now, where to, Superman?"
The comment was typical of Leo, but it seemed kind of forced. Almost like it was after he left Calypso. I realized he must've been still thinking about the boy from 3, whose body was still in the hovercraft way above us. For once, I was thankful for the dude's annoying, but slightly uplifting presence. The tributes needed something other than fear to focus on.
"Who?" Someone asked.
"You don't know who Superman is? Gods, you're just like Hazel. Allow Papa Leo to enlighten y-"
"Leo, can it please wait until after we defeat Kronos?"
"Sure. Right."
"So, where's the training center?"
Jason frowned up at the sky. "We don't have time. We were originally going just so we could catch our breath and rest a few minutes, but getting off the hovercraft took longer than expected. Our friends in the arena have been in there for a couple hours now. Who knows what Kronos has done to them already?"
Of course. Kronos would have heard that we were alive by now and would be taking his wrath out on Percy, Annabeth, Piper, the rest of the tributes, and- most hard to think about of all- Hazel.
"So, we go straight for the control room."
"Right." Jason turned to the tributes. "Do any of you know where that might be? You guys have seen the Capitol on TV before, right?"
"But this is the first games we've seen. No idea." My district partner responded.
"Leo, didn't you have to go over to the building to hack into the system?"
"That was with- Coiler. At night, I don't think I'd be able to find it myself."
"Great. We're all going to die because no one has a map of the Capitol lying around."
"Need help?"
We all turned towards the voice. A single man in black armor stood behind us. He was probably in his 40s or early 50s, but he looked as active and vigilant as us. His eyes were gray and fierce like a son of Athena's, but his body was built like what a male Hunter of Artemis would look like, as if he'd been hunting for eons. The bow slung over his shoulder just added to that illusion. He gazed us over, and several tributes fell to their knees.
"Who are you?" Jason asked, hand gripping his golden coin.
"My name's Gale Hawthorne." He gave a small smile. "I heard there was a breakout going on."
While he was taking us to the control center, he explained that he had a history with Willow and Rye's mom. After the rebellion ended, they grew distant. However, when we were talking to the tributes last night, both of the Mellark parents had been up and overheard everything. After freaking out for a moment about how bad the situation really was, they both decided they would do everything they could to help. However, as mentors, they were needed to control the flow of gifts from sponsors. Their mother had wanted to just ditch that and go straight into battle, but their father had suggested that she call someone to help us instead, to make it less suspicious.
"You're taking the news about Kronos and demigods rather well."
"Trust me, I had time to get used to it. At first I thought Katniss had lost her mind. She rarely ever jokes about anything. But still, I owe it to her after- nevermind. I decided I'd just walk around the city in case she actually was telling the truth. Better than watching the Games. That's when I saw you guys fly down from the sky from a few blocks away and- we're here."
"Well, I'm glad you did decide to help us."
He just nodded. "Do any of you know how to fly the hovercraft?"
"I've got it." Leo responded.
"Stay safe then. I'll go tell Katniss and Peeta that you guys are about to break their-" His voice faltered. "Children- and the others out." With that, he walked inside, presumably to the place all the mentors were.
"Frank? You ready?" As the words came out of Jason's mouth, I realized that this was the part where I went into the game maker room. Alone.
"Yeah."
"You don't look ready." Leo noted.
"I'm fine. I just haven't tried turning into another person before. I don't even know if I can."
"You'll be fine. If you can't turn into Sonork, just become an animal or something. Anything that's a distraction will work."
"Okay." I tried to sound as confident as possible. "Good luck to you guys."
"You too." The group turned and headed off to find a hovercraft. Once they left, I took a deep breath.
"I can do this. I'm one of the saviors of Olympus, praetor of New Rome, son of Mars. Distracting a group of mortals is no problem." I told myself before- summoning all the courage I could- walking inside.
Finding the room was surprisingly easy. After wandering around for a while, I finally arrived at a set of metal doors with glass windows. Inside, maybe thirty people dressed in white sat at stations with holographic images displayed above them. Hundreds of screens portrayed scenes of what I assumed was the arena.
I closed my eyes and thought about everything I knew about Sonork. The harsh and cruel shape of his face, the cold, dark, beady eyes. I am a cruel, powerful, time lord dictator. When I opened my eyes, Frank Zhang's reflection stared back at me in the metal. Schist.
Okay, Plan B. I braced myself to enter the room. I had no idea how much time had passed by, but any minute now, someone could walk in and say "Hey, you're that farmer dude from the Games!" I pulled on the handle. Locked. Of course. This was the game maker's room, top secret business.
My eyes landed on a small gap in the middle of the two doors and the floor. Definitely not big enough for an animal of any size. An insect. I need an insect. Just then I heard footsteps coming. Concentrating as hard as possible, I felt myself shrink down to an ant. The world was so- so much bigger. I could see every speck of dirt from people's shoes, crumbs as big as dictionaries. It was unbelievable. I was jarred back to reality when I heard the voices of the people walking in. Right. Probably a good idea to go before I got squashed.
I crawled through the hole and entered the room. Now, for the next part. What was annoying enough to distract this many people while a hovercraft broke into the arena? I remembered the stories my mom had told me about our ancestors. My perfect distraction came to me. Assuming that the gamemakers didn't go crazy trying to kill me and end up pressing some random button that blew up my friends.
There's no easy way to describe what it feels like to be a swarm of wasps. Imagine yourself smaller than a marble. Now imagine yourself with wings. Finally, imagine that you've split into a hundred pieces, you see yourself everywhere, you are everywhere. Almost like what playing the piano probably feels like. You're controlling multiple parts of you that have to go to different places at the same time and fast in order to achieve your goal. Only about a billion times more confusing.
It definitely worked though. The game makers went nuts, swatting at me and running around.
"TRACKER JACKERS!" About half of them were screaming, running as if their lives depended on it. I had no idea what it meant, but it was effective enough.
I kept my eyes on the screens for Saturn knows how long. Actually- scratch that. The less he knew, the better. Finally, about a quarter of them showed footage of wildfire. Yet another reason I was thankful for not being there. A voice, probably Leo's, gave everything with ears in the arena a headache.
"词使!" I shuddered. What Leo had said meant something along the lines of "Words make"- which wasn't too bad, considering just the tones were wrong- but I got the message. 此時, meaning "Now". We had discussed that once they got to the arena, they would shout a code word and I would deactivate the force field. Jason wanted to say something in Latin, but we had decided against it, as there was a possibility that Kronos would be in a Saturn mood and be able to understand it. So, we had agreed that I would quickly teach Leo something in Chinese.
I made part of me, maybe five bees or so go to press the button on the head game maker's desk that clearly read "Hovercraft landing". However, the weight wasn't enough to push it down.
Four almost consecutive transformations. That was seriously pushing it. Still, I had twenty three people- no, not just twenty three. If I ever wanted to go back to see my friends back during present time, I had to do this. Summoning all my strength, I became a cheetah. Large, fearsome, strong, and fast. Just what I needed to be able to press that button, burst through the door, and make a run for the training center.
"Wait! What happened to all the tracker jackers?" One game maker shouted above the chaos.
All of them froze and looked around in confusion. Taking the chance, I sprinted for the button and pressed it. I was no son of Vulcan, but I knew enough to be able to disable the screens on the walls for good measure.
"Forget the wasps! Look at that feline!" One stared at me in absolute terror. Great. Well, I wasn't expecting to go completely unnoticed as a giant cat.
"Hey, look at the screens!"
"Get the President!"
And that's when I took my cue to ram through the doors and with that, I ran for my life.