When Frank signed up for sentry duty that morning, he'd been looking foreward to a quiet day with Hazel. Maybe they'd get to practice their terrible french again, drink some hot coco, watch the mortals drive by without noticing them.
What he didn't sign up for, was an earthquake and a demigod carrying a goddess, all while yelling at him in Japanese.
"Frank, do something!" demanded Hazel.
"I'm trying," he told her, firing arrow after arrow at the gorgons that were chasing them, "The earthquake keeps moving them!"
The demigod lurched through the maintenance door, the goddess on his back cackling the entire time.
"Are you causing this earthquake?" Hazel urgently asked the demigod, "You've gotta cut it out!"
In response, the demigod bared a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth at them, causing Hazel to raise her spatha, "Are you a monster?"
"I promise you, daughter of Pluto, he's a demigod," said the old woman, "His name is Percy Jackson."
The demigod shouted at them in a torrent of frantic, Japanese.
"Ok, you are way too white to be Japanese," Frank grumbled.
"Frank!" Hazel scolded, "Now is not the time! Take Percy and go, I'll hold them off!"
"Frank," Percy muttered, "…Franky?"
"Just Frank," Frank told him as they ran, "Uh…did you understand that?"
Percy looked at him helplessly.
The tunnel shook ominously.
"Is he doing that?" Frank asked the old lady, "Or is it Hazel?"
"Just keep running, Frank Zhang," the old lady said calmly.
They spilled out of the tunnel to New Rome. Frank watched the old lady have a heated conversation with Percy in Japanese, before Percy finally relented and crossed the River Tiber.
"Whoah," Frank said nervously, "He's steaming."
Sure enough, Percy's whole body was steaming. He staggered out of the Tiber on the other side, the old lady tumbling to the ground next to him.
"Frank!"
Hazel sprinted at him, covered in mud, the gorgons hot on her heels.
"Hazel, go help Percy!" Frank shouted at her, "Make sure the sentries don't shoot him!"
Frank talked a big game, but the gorgons caught him immediately as he tried crossing the Tiber.
"Frank!" Hazel shrieked.
But, just as he was able to see the tops of the siege towers, the gorgons squaked in pain and dropped him into the Tiber.
Percy snarled from atop a column of water, brandishing a horrifyingly large, pale green sword that looked like it could vivisect a giant.
"Other sword, dear," the old woman called to him.
Percy turned his wild, feral eyes on her and she gestured at his pocket. Percy's giant meat cleaver dissolved into water as he pulled out a bronze, leaf-shaped sword, grinned, and pounced on the gorgon ladies.
Frank pulled himself onto the shore and watched in horror as Percy hacked at the gorgons with the same ferocity as a great white shark devouring its prey. Once he seemed satisfied, he held out his hand, and summoned a water spout to spread the gorgons' dust to the four corners of the wind.
"Well, then," the old lady got up and dusted herself off in the middle of a shocked silence, "Thank you for a lovely trip, Percy Jackson."
Reyna choked, "Percy…Jackson?"
The old lady laughed, "Oh, yes! You'll have such fun together!"
Then, the old lady glowed and changed form into a seven-foot-tall goddess in a shimmering blue dress.
"Lady Juno," said Reyna, kneeling. Frank and the others followed her lead.
Percy spat a clump of gorgon dust out of his mouth and said something in Japanese.
"Um, Lady Juno?" Hazel asked hesitantly, "None of us speak Japanese."
"Oh, right," said Juno, and she touched Percy's head.
"What the Hades?" Percy demanded, in English, "Who are you? Where am I?"
The earth shook again.
"Romans," Juno addressed Camp Jupiter, "I bring to you, Percy Jackson, Son of Neptune. Do help him learn to control his powers, will you? The earthquakes are quite a nuisance."