XXVI

Nico

Nico jumped back from the moving statue. As it creaked and groaned, Nico knew that this statue was an automaton. But this automaton was an Eagle. Suddenly, he remembered something.

"Prometheus' Eagle has escaped to the world. It is in hiding, but will bring destruction to your friends. You should really give up."

Nico snapped out of his memories. Where had they come from? He guessed that they had come from Tartarus. He couldn't remember much from Tartarus, except for a constant throbbing in his head…

The Eagle cawed once, saw them, and flew down from its pedestal. "Scatter!" Nico yelled. The Eagle crashed onto the ground, its claws creating fractures on the concrete. It was about 10 feet tall, made completely of bronze. The Eagle first saw Nico, and flew towards him.

Nico ducked just in time, and the Eagle's claws flew about 2 millimeters above him. He stood up, and ran back to Coach Hedge, who was putting Piper in an alcove of trees. "Coach!"

Hedge looked at him, and yelled, "Yes, I know! The Eagle that tortured Prometheus! Just FIGHT IT!"

Nico nodded and ran back out. Walt was a little busy dodging the golden barbs that the Eagle would occasionally shoot out of its wings, and Zia was shooting gigantic fireballs that would have dealt a lot of damage had it met its target. Unfortunately, they were slow, and the Eagle was fast. Plus, Zia was losing energy. Nico joined in the fight. He couldn't really help much, considering the fact that his death powers really could only work on enemies that stayed on the ground, but then he saw something that shocked him.

Behind the Eagle, a bunch of protesters was slowly marching their way, shouting insults in Greek. He could just understand it, and that meant double trouble.

He dodged a barrage of tiny golden missiles and yelled to Zia and Walt, "We have to lead it away! We can't let the mortals get hurt!" they noticed the protesters, and their eyes widened. "Okay!" Walt yelled.

Just then Coach Hedge ran back out, carrying Piper again. "I heard. Let's go!"

They ran. Unfortunately, the Eagle was fast, and it easily outpaced them. It landed in front of them, and cawed. It flapped its wings, and in the narrow street, it shattered about a thousand windows.

Whoops.

But behind them, the protesters were marching their way. The Eagle was standing in front of them, and it saw the mortals. Uh oh.

It took flight and flew towards them.

Nico suddenly got an idea. "Zia, when I say jump, jump and try to grab the talons."

"Okay."

Nico waited until the Eagle was about 10 feet in front of them. One Mississippi, Two Mississippi… "Jump!" Nico yelled, and he and Zia jumped up. They each grabbed a big claw.

"All right," Zia said. "What do we do now?"

Get onto its back!" Nico yelled. He looked back at Coach Hedge and Walt. "Get to the ship!" He yelled.

Coach Hedge heard him and ran.

Mean while, Zia was trying to find some handholds. "How are we supposed to gat up?" she yelled over the wind. Her hair was flying everywhere.

"I don't know!" Nico yelled back. "Try looking… Oh, over here!"

Nico had found some monkey bars. They were ladder rungs positioned vertically. Nico grabbed them and climbed, and at the end, he found the ladder.

Zia followed him until he reached the back. Unfortunately, the Eagle was really hot and it was quite hard. Finally, they made it to the head. "Okay, Zia!" he yelled. "Release a fireball!"

"Here?" she asked.

"Yes!" Nico yelled back.

Zia started chanting, and pretty soon, she had a fireball. She lobbed it at the Eagle's back. Unfortunately, the Eagle was travelling so fast that it zipped past the fireball, which was still in midair when Nico looked back.

Time for plan B.

"Zia!" Nico yelled. "Can you just catch your hand on fire?"

"Yes!"

"Then do it! Make it as hot as you possibly can." Nico made space for her. He didn't really want to get scorched. Zia chanted again, and this time, she had a white hot hand.

"Now press it against the hide!" Nico instructed. She did as she said. Instantly, the Eagle slowed down, but there was only a few meters until the bird would hit the crowd. "Hotter!" he yelled to Zia. She cranked up the heat so much that he had to scoot practically to the tail to avoid getting burnt. Zia was fine, probably because of a protective shield.

They were about 2 meters away now. "Zia!" Nico yelled! "Hotter!"

And just as the Eagle was about to dive into the throng of rioters, Zia summoned a blast of flame so hot it melted the Celestial Bronze. The Eagle cawed really loudly, and it slowed down. And suddenly, the bronze turned impossibly hot, and the Eagle exploded.

Nico and Zia flew through the air. "Zia! Grab a streetlight!" Nico's mind went into instinct and he grabbed a streetlight, swung around and landed on the ground. Zia had done the same. He turned around and was face-to-face with an extremely angry mob of people.

Nico couldn't understand modern Greek well, but he understood it well enough to understand the mutters that the Greek people were saying while pointing up at the sky, where the mechanical Eagle had exploded.

Secret Spy Plot, Nico understood. Two kids… sent to infiltrate us. The mob now thought that the mechanical eagle was a spy drone and he and Zia were spies sent by the Greek government.

Why did things have to be so complicated?

"What are they saying?" Zia asked him.

"Something about the Eagle being a spy drone and us being spies as well." Nico replied.

Suddenly, somebody yelled in Greek, "GET THEM!"

The gigantic angry mob ran towards them. Nico readied his knife to give those mortals a shocking.

Zia saw what he was doing, and gasped. "You're- you're going to kill them? That knife's sharp, you know!"

Nico looked at his knife, and replied, "No, this is made of divine material. It'll pass through mortals like they're made of air."

"Great. I hope you're telling the truth."

But things got quite complicated.

The Greek people took out kitchen knives.

"Uh-oh." Nico said. "RUN!"

Not a moment too soon. A knife swung through the air just inches from Nico's back. He and Zia pelted off through the streets. Luckily, Nico had recognized a plaza a few blocks back, and he doubled back, using a different street. He ended up in front of a fountain.

He recognized this fountain from the route they took out of town. He ran to the opposite side of the plaza and selected the street that looked the most like the one they had taken, and pretty soon, he was running up the hill. Unfortunately, the crowd was only a about 20 meters back, and were catching up fast. Nico and Zia ran close to the ship, within shouting distance, and Nico yelled up, "LADDERS!"

Coach Hedge, luckily, knew how to operate the ladders and they slowly descended. Nico jumped and grabbed one of the rungs. "ZIA!" he yelled. She grabbed another rung, and Nico yelled, "UP!" The ladders slowly rose up.

But the crowd was only a couple of meter behind them. "TAKE OFF!" Nico yelled. "HURRY!"

The ship stayed where it was for an agonizingly long time. The crowd gained ground, and they were only a couple of meters away when the ship suddenly started to rise. As Nico and Zia kept hanging onto the ladder, the Greeks started to gawk at the magical flying trireme. And they got really angry.

They all threw their knives.

Nico dodged most of them, but some of them impaled themselves in the wooden hull. Nico just hoped that they hadn't hit any essentials.

Slowly, the ladder rose, and when Nico flopped down on the deck, they had left Athens-and the angry, knife-throwing mob-behind.