twitch'pjofan95: Hmm . . . I never really thought about it to be honest. I think Luthan sounds better, although I'm not planning on having them be any more than just friends. Besides, he's like five years older than her! But nothing is offical yet!
Blast and darklilyofthevalley: Thanks so much!
glistening moon: Yeah, I like him, too. He's an interesting character. Even if he is seldom mentioned in the series.
The armies of the dead clashed with the Titan's monsters. Fifth Avenue exploded into absolute chaos! Mortals screamed an ran for cover. Demeter waved her hand and an entire column of giants turned into a wheat field. Persephone changed the dracaenae's spears into sunflowers. The Weasley and Stoll twins along with Blaise Zabini, planted firecrackers and dungbombs near the enemies' feet. The wizards who had just gotten up were trying to figure out what was going on. Ginny, Harry, Astoria, and Nico were trying to protect innocent pedestrians the best they could. The Apollo kid and Athony Goldstein ran around, healing anyone who needed it. For the first time in what may have been forever, Slytherins worked together with other Houses. But even with their talent and cooperation, they were still hardly a match for Kronos' army.
"This is madness!" Astoria cried. "This - - this is crazy!"
"No," said Thalia, "this is SPARTA!"
"I thought it was New York."
"It's from a movie."
"A what?"
"Never mind," she said irritably. (an:/ that was for you, Blast!)
"Nakamure," Kronos said. "Attend me. Giants - - deal with them." He ducked into the lobby.
"Ethan, DON'T!" Luna cried, "don't trust him!"
For several seconds, Percy just stood there, dumbstruck. He had been expecting a fight, but Kronos just ignored him like he wasn't worth his time. He didn't know why, but it made him mad.
The first Hyperborean giant smashed at him with his club. Percy rolled between the legs and stabbed Riptide into his backside. He shattered into a pile of ice shards. The second giant breathed frost at Annabeth, who was barely able to stand, but Grover pulled her out of the way while Thalia sliced her hunting knives across his monstrous blue neck. The world's largest headless ice sculpture.
Percy glanced outside the magic barrier, Nico was fighting his way towards his mom and Paul, but they weren't waiting for help. Paul had grabbed a sword from a fallen hero and did a pretty fine job keeping a dracaena busy. He stabbed her in the gut and she disintegrated. Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and several Slytherin boys watched him contently. Then they charged at monsters, copying what he had done. And soon there were several piles of golden sand.
"Sweet," Zabini whispered.
"Not bad," Paul said. He turned towards Percy and grinned. "I hope that was a monster I just killed. I was a Shakespearian actor in college! Picked up a little swordplay!"
"He was awesome!" Seamus said, "you should've seen him before! He took down like six of those snake-thingys!"
Percy liked Paul even better for that. He was WAY better than Gabe, that was for sure. But then a Laistrygonian charged at his mom. She was rummaging around an abandoned police car - - maybe looking for the emergency radio - - and her back was turned.
"Hold on!" Adrian Pucey charged at the monster before Percy could, and swung his sword - - but missed. Then the monster tuned on him. "Uh oh," he whispered.
It was then Sally Jackson to the rescue! She whirled around when the monster was on top of Pucey. She was holding something in her hands that Percy thought was an umbrella until she cranked the pump and the shotgun blast blew the giant twenty feet or so backwards until he landed on Nico's sword.
"Whoa!" said Dean, Seamus, Miles, Adrian, Blaise, and Theodore simultaneously.
"Nice one," Paul said.
Pucey looked embarrassed. He blushed. "Um . . . thanks," he said to Mrs. Jackson, forcing an awkward smile on his face.
"When did you learn to fire a shotgun?" Percy demanded.
"About two seconds ago, now GO!"
"Yes," Nico agreed, "we'll handle the monsters. Go find Kronos!"
"Yeah, let him do the fun stuff," muttered Nott.
But Percy had left.
"Come on, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth called. He nodded. Then looked at the rubble pile. He had forgotten about Chiron! How could he have done that?
"Mrs. O'Leary he said, "Chiron's under there. If anyone can dig him out, you can. Find him! Help him!" he wasn't sure if she understood, but she bounded straight for the rubble.
He, Thalia, Grover, and Annabeth, raced for the elevators.
"Wait!" Someone called. The figure of a girl was running towards them. It was Luna Lovegood. "I'm coming, too."
"You can't," Annabeth said, "only gods and Half-Bloods can be on Olympus."
There were tears in Luna's eyes. "Please make some sort of exception. Please. Ethan's up there. Something bad is going to happen to him, I just know it!"
"I can't do that. I'm sorry."
She thought hard about this for a moment, as if deciding if she would go anyway. "Alright," the twelve-year-old said, "but promise me one thing?"
"What?"
"That you won't let Ethan get hurt."
"I promise to try my best." Did anyone else have a strange feeling of Deja vu?
"Are you Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades?"
"Uh . . . yeah. Can I . . . um . . . help you . . . ?"
"No, but you can help my friend. My name is Astoria Greengrass. And I kind of need a favor. You see, I sort of promised that you would do something for a friend of mine . . . . . "
"Are you sure this will work?" asked Nott for the umpteenth time.
Nico rolled his eyes. "You've asked me that like eighty times and my answer has still not changed. Yes, yes, and still yes! I've done this a bajillion times, so I think I would know what I am doing!"
"Well, I was just checking. You can never be too careful, you know," Nott said, sitting on top of a headstone with his arms folded. "Why does it have to e in a graveyard?" Nott whined.
Nico growled like a wild animal. He was fed up with this guy. Why wouldn't he just shut up already? It was like the boy was doing him any favors. He was the one doing something for him, and he STILL had the nerve to complain? But he forced himself to remain calm. "Because the presence of death is stronger here," he explained.
"I'm cold," he complained, "can we hurry up before I get hypothermia or something?"
"Dude, it's like sixty degrees outside!" he was starting get a feeling that Nott was just complaining at this point only for the sake of complaining! And he hated the boy's attitude. He acted so . . . superior. Well, might as well get this over with. He took out his McDonald's Happy Meal and placed it on the ground. "Let the dead taste again . . . " wow, I must sound like a complete idiot, thought Nico.
Why am I doing this, again? Nott wondered.
"Okay," Nico said, "so what was your mother's name?"
Oh, yeah. That's why. Astoria had promised him that Death Boy would be able to let him talk to his mother. "E-Evangeline," he whispered, holding back tears. "Evangeline Bellus Nott."
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