Hola- I apologise for not uploading yesterday. I had to finish a story for something called The Writing Games on Fanpop (Letters to Simon- check it out. You'll all be so proud of me, I used real characters that I didn't take from someone else!) and that took nearly the whole day. Then I went to see Titanic with my friends :) We were so freaking emotional coming out of the movie, one of the saddest stories that's been told to me via book/movie. 3D well done, breath-taking effects.
Anyways, enjoy! Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!
Disclaimer: I own bupkis.
XXIII
Piper
July 14th
Percy had just slipped into the crowd of people. It didn't look like anything strange was going on. Quinn was in her head, letting the flow of peopl sway her back and forth; Jason just stood there with no look whatsoever even if Piper knew that he was already waiting for Percy and Hazel to come back, and Frank just stood there looking Styx-worried and swearing under his breath.
"Frank, stop it. Swearing won't help and the locals are looking at us weird." Piper said. "Percy will find her, they'll be fine." Frank played with the zipper of his jacket.
"I know, but this sucks."
"You can say that again," Jason said looking around. "Does anybody else think this day has been quiet considering Percy, Hazel and I are all big three?"
Piper pursed her lip.
"No. I… I hadn't thought about that…" Piper said. "But we don't have to think about it. Think positive, karmic, peaceful feng shui thoughts."
"Feng shui?" Quinn asked.
"I don't know," Piper said. Great; now she was freaked. Thanks a ton Jason.
"Where's Percy?" Jason muttered.
"They've only been gone a few minutes."
"Oh!" Quinn stumbled and fell onto Piper, who managed to catch her.
"Sorry," she whispered, blushing red up to the root of her hair.
"Watch where you're going, man," Jason called to the guy who'd just passed them. He froze and turned around. Piper cocked her head. She had never seen someone wear a trench coat, mittens, a floppy hat, cowboy boots, and a neck warmer all at once.
"What did you say?" The man said.
"Watch where you're going, you pushed my friend." Jason said. Quinn blushed.
"Before that. What did you call me?" He said. Jason didn't say anything, probably trying to process everything.
"Man?" Frank suggested.
"That does it!" Someone said. Piper spotted another man in the crowd. And another. And another. Oh, look at that, a fourth. All dressed the same, as if they'd raided the Salvation Army's donation boxes and settled with whatever they pulled out.
Her hand instinctively went towards Katoptris, who was tucked into her pants leg and making it impossible to walk.
Suddenly four trench coats dropped, floppy coats went flying, and Piper nearly had a heart attack.
Feet. That's right; they were being cornered by feet. The creatures had been stacked up and hiding under trench coats for a good reason. They were maybe two feet long feet each, and the ankle didn't end in a stub, but with a bald head accompanied by an ugly little angry face. Their ears stuck out from their heads and they scowled. Their noses were lumps, like gnomes in movies, and they had scarce teeth like babies.
Frank was the first to lose it and snigger. Quinn was biting her lips hard, probably because today was one of her bad and tired days.
"Okay, what?" Frank said.
"You laugh half-blood but you should be afraid!" The foot said.
Okay; keep the image of the foot in your mind, and imagine the deepest voice coming out of it. Piper lost it, and started laughing.
"Very afraid!" One of them sustained.
"Okay, I'm sorry, who are you guys?" Frank asked, trying to regain his serious.
"Monopods," Quinn said.
"Quinn, we've noticed they only have one foot…" Jason said.
"No, it's their literal name, not just a Latin word. Monopods. One-foots." Quinn said.
"Alas! Someone recognises our greatness!" One Monopod said.
"Alright," Jason said. "Well, it was nice meeting you guys. We have to… go…"
"Going will be useless!" The Monopod said.
"Now guys," Piper said stepping up. "Do you really think that would do anybody good? I mean, it'd waste our time, someone would get hurt, and it would traumatise the mortals."
Three very good points to anybody with a brain, but the Monopods seemed to have very little human bits and bobs in them; only the foot and the head.
"Poor mortals…" A Monopod said for a second.
"It would be good!" Another one said. His voice was nearly soprano and Piper nearly lost it again.
"Three of the seven half-bloods, and a daughter of Minerva! Gaia would reward us greatly!"
And just like that the sunny Spanish day, and the warmth of a million tourists in a small space faded away and chills soared up Piper's back.
"Gaia, eh?" Frank said.
"I heard an 'eh'," Piper said.
"Wow, not now Piper." Frank said shooting her a look that meant he wasn't in the mood for Canadian stereotypes. Well, he never was; which was why Piper had so much fun annoying the life out of him.
"Gaia will reward us! Half-bloods will recognise us and tremble!"
"Monopods will rule!"
"It's hard to rule when you're dead," Jason said calmly. And just like that they all drew weapons and caused a great deal of yelling amongst the crowd. Piper heard the Spanish word for 'police!' about twenty times.
They were all back to back, and the Monopods were waiting for a fight. Piper was looking at the Monopods. They looked weird, so freaking funny; but she knew they must have some kind of weapon. Maybe they breathed fire, or spat acid like that sea monster from the other day.
Suddenly Jason swung his sword in a wide arc behind her, and cut through one of the Monopods. He popped like a piñata and that was that. But the rest of them charged, and so did the demigods.
Piper stepped on one foot, jerked back her elbow and nailed one in the eye and thrust her dagger in the opposite way to chickabob a foot. That would sound so disgusting at a BBQ- thank the gods she was vegetarian.
She swung her dagger (technically the foot on there too) and hit another Monopod, using it to slide the one off her blade: a fancy little trick she'd learnt from watching Jason deal with giant ant swarms during Capture-the-Flag once.
She looked for a second at the others; but Frank seemed to be the only one who'd figured out what the Monopods had as their secret weapon since they had nothing else.
Jumping.
About thirty feet into the air at most, but they seemed to like jumping at faces just as much. Frank had turned into a kangaroo and he kicked them back just as bad.
Suddenly she got the breath knocked out of her and she fell on the sidewalk, Katoptris scatted away. Piper had to bite bate a bad word as what was presumably a foot rolled her onto her back.
"Well, well. Children of Venus always taste so… Sweet."
And then another secret weapon was revealed: fangs. Those three baby teeth Piper had seen now looked like shark teeth. Before Piper could do anything it bit down on her shoulder and she screamed before the idea of even shutting up crossed her mind.
Suddenly the Monopod went flying, and someone offered a hand. She took it and got pulled up in one swift tug.
"You good?" Jason asked.
"I just got bitten by a foot," Piper said.
"There are worst." Jason said. The sad part was that he was probably talking by experience. Piper saw a nick at his ankle.
"Took a chunk out of you?" Piper asked.
"It stings a bit, but whatever." Jason said. His foot somehow scooped up Katoptris and with a flick it flew at her. She caught the hilt.
"Show off." She said. But Jason was already surrounded by more and holding his ground.
Quinn's advantage seemed to be that she was small, thin, and agile. The feet flew at her but she ducked or twisted or something. It was quite impressive combined with the skilled gladus swinging.
Katoptris made a wide arc that cut through three more feet but they were everywhere. Piper's shoulder wound stung like heck now.
"We need a better plan!" Jason called out. "We need to leave, there must be a nest or something nearby since they keep coming!"
"Frank," Quinn yelled from her bubble of fighting. "How much weight can you carry while in flight?"
"Well let's see," Frank said. "I've barely ever flown before, and I've never seen a dragon; so not much. You at the least."
"That's all that's needed!" Quinn said.
"Quinn, you got a plan?" Piper said, just as she realised how dumb of a question that was. Children of Wisdom always had a plan.
"Mmm-hmm!" She said. "You and Jason have to hold your ground for a while, give me… Ten minutes."
Ten minutes: that's the time they'd given Reyna at Camp Jupiter.
"Okay!" Jason said, sending a round house kick that knocked three jumping Monopods from the air.
With a squawk and a black bird; Quinn was lifted off the ground and flying. Piper didn't even want to know what was up.
"Think she's got another bomb?" Jason asked, as he and Piper backed up closer to each other.
"I don't know; I don't think she brought one. Bombs are new to her; she didn't make them at Camp." Piper said.
"If I'm ever praetor again; I am giving her total rights to set off bombs wherever she wants to." Jason muttered under his breath, as more Monopods came out of the crowd. The mortal police was taking awfully long to get there, so did Percy and Hazel…
Piper clenched her jaw wondering if that'd make the pain go away, but apparently it didn't. Gods, were those things venomous? Venomous feet… Well with their luck, anything was possible.
"Hey!" Jason suddenly said. Piper spun around and saw a foot flying at her. Jason thrust his arm out to protect her, but Piper was just as quick to push it down because the only thing she processed was stupid Jason Grace that is your sword arm you're putting up. And then it flew at her face and she felt teeth sink in right under her eye, and at the top of her nose.
"OFF!" She yelled. And then it dropped down. Piper stepped on it, crushing its skull, and swung her sword blindly as spots danced across her eyes and her head lost about a million pounds worth of weight. She felt it hit a Monopod, then another.
"Piper- are you-"
"Keep fighting Jason Grace don't you dare!" Piper said as she swung her sword again. She made contact, but Katoptris' blade didn't smooth right across the Monopod. She pulled her sword out and she felt another bite in her wrist, the back of her arm, her thigh, and suddenly the whole world was black.
Quinn
"Quinn; I fully acknowledge that you're a genius, but what in Rome are you doing?" Frank asked. She was perched on the gutter of the building overlooking the fight –some pastry shop- and she was busy.
"Go back to the boat," Quinn said. "Tell them that we need reinforcements."
"Quinn, they need help down there…" Frank said looking down. Jason and Piper were getting swarmed.
"What would be better, a son of Mars or a warship?" Quinn asked him, as she found what she was looking for in her pocket. She didn't let Frank see it or else he'd haul her back to the ground or refuse to go get the Argo II. At this point, Quinn was pretty sure that Leo, Tyson and Annabeth should have it fixed. And if not, minor repairs could wait.
"Quinn, how are we supposed to fit a warship in..?"
"Frank you just admitted that I was a genius- so go!" Quinn said. She needed him out of here before she could do anything. He sighed and his anatomy, shapes, traits and skin melted into those of a vulture -sacred bird of Mars, Quinn noted- and flew away.
Quinn quickly climbed the rooftop further up, careful not to fall. She tried to be as precise and stable as in the legion's army runs.
She finally got to the chimney of the building. It was the only way to get in the building, the door had been blocked by the Monopods. She heard Jason and Piper yelling to each other and she knew she had no more time to lose.
"My name is Quinn Hunter," she whispered before slashing her wrist with the knife. It hurt, but she kept quiet and let the droplets race down the chimney, hoping this would work. She squeezed the cut for more and ignored the sting.
Jason
Things had looked bad many times aboard the Argo II with the near-daily attacks of sea monsters and such, but this was looking pretty bad.
He was holding on to Piper with one hand, and fighting a million foot-heads with the other. Piper had taken it bad; she should've let him take it to the arm, it was easier to shake them off your arm than your face, thank the gods she could charmspeak. Besides, they hadn't tasted his blood yet; they weren't as hungry for it.
Suddenly they all froze and looked at the pastry shop.
"Minerva!" They awed. Suddenly they completely forgot about Jason and Piper and ran inside yelling something in Ancient Greek; something that Jason didn't catch.
A few of them charged through the glass door, which shattered into a million pieces, covering loaves of bread and batched of pastries that had looked really good right until then.
They all immediately started going for the bread oven, and they tried to squeeze themselves in it. Jason had no idea what was going on, but he was holding a certain child of wisdom responsible right now.
"We will bring Gaia's pawn to her!" A Monopod shouted. They all screamed at the same time, some sort of war chant, and suddenly there was an explosion that threw Jason to the ground. He tried to cover Piper's face and chest to prevent damage, and a few of the people who hadn't run off screamed and fell to the ground as well. A single toe that belonged to Talos soared into the street.
Definitely Quinn.
Anonymous reviews
s- two chapters a week! Whoa there, I'm not superhuman!
Bigfan- Maybe it does… you'll see. Also, I don't like Piper and Jason or Piper and Leo (OH NOES!) so I came up with someone better for Piper. Maybe you're going down the same road.¸
Trivia101- Umm, actually, I've been back on Fanpop for a while now.
Hello- I will see… I've actually dreamed something up, but I'm not sure. Either way don't worry, I didn't forget her.
