A little Frank chapter just for you guys! Nothing that fun, but I hope you all enjoy.
Reviews:
Undeath9087: Remember she's dealing with a lot of stuff- so she probably wouldn't figure it out right away- though she will figure it out eventually- and that's gonna be rough because she was literally naked in front of him- that's a whole new level of yikes for her. If Frank hadn't arrived... well. We all know it wouldn't have gone well for poor Percy. And yeah, Leo would think it was hilarious.
Weirdhead: I always have plot twists for people.
Thickneck: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah. That is all I'll say. That, and how the fuck do you explain to someone that their dead daughter is alive over the phone? How do you do that?
The Official Clarisse: No, hah, you'll understand why Frank said they were breaking up. And yeah, Arion is scary fast.
Guest: The Romans will learn about Thalia, and yeah she did out herself as a Greek- though, would you have time to process that in the middle of a battle? And the Princess Andromeda will be just fine I promise.
PJ Fan 285: I mean, that would be funny, and in character but no.

Frank was certain that he'd remember the chariot ride until the end of his life- he'd probably have nightmares about it. He was honestly certain that he was lucky to be alive by the end of it- and wouldn't that have been a humiliating headstone?

Frank Zhang, died by falling off the back of a chariot driven by his insane crush.

Well, maybe not insane, Hazel was the most amazing girl he'd ever met, she was brave, loyal and kind and so much stronger than he could ever dream of being- there was a reason he'd given her his stick, and it wasn't just because he had feelings for her.

Still, he was incredibly relieved when the wheels fell off of the chariot and he had to tell Hazel that it was breaking up. And he was even more grateful that he recognised where they were- they were in Canada- and when Hazel pulled on the reigns Arion slowed- though he didn't seem happy about it, dipping to subsonic speeds as they zipped through the city streets. They crossed the Ironworkers bridge into North Vancouver, and the chariot started to rattle dangerously. At last Arion stopped at the top of a wooded hill. He snorted with satisfaction, as if to say, That's how we run, fools. The smoking chariot collapsed, spilling Percy, Frank, and Ella onto the wet, mossy ground.

Frank stumbled to his feet, swaying slightly and trying to blink the yellow spots out of his eyes as Percy scrambled to her feet and got to work unhitching Arion from the ruined chariot.

Ella fluttered around in dizzy circles, bonking into the trees and muttering, "Tree. Tree. Tree."

Only Hazel seemed unaffected by the ride. Grinning with pleasure, she slid off the horse's back. "That was fun!"

"Yeah." Frank swallowed back his nausea. "So much fun."

Arion whinnied.

"He says he needs to eat," Percy translated. "No wonder. He probably burned about six million calories."

Hazel studied the ground at her feet and frowned. "I'm not sensing any gold around here.…Don't worry, Arion. I'll find you some. In the meantime, why don't you go graze? We'll meet you—"

The horse zipped off, leaving a trail of steam in his wake. Hazel knit her eyebrows. "Do you think he'll come back?"

"I don't know," Percy said, blinking rapidly, running her fingers through her hair, fingers getting caught in the wild tangles, "I mean, he's very rude and spirited but he did seem to like you Hazel- he didn't call you any names so I mean, that must mean something."

Frank almost hoped the horse would stay away. He didn't say that, of course. He could tell Hazel was distressed by the idea of losing her new friend. But Arion scared him, and Frank was pretty sure the horse knew it.

He watched as Percy and Hazel started salvaging supplies from the chariot wreckage. There had been a few boxes of random Amazon merchandise in the front, and Ella shrieked with delight when she found a shipment of books. She snatched up a copy of The Birds of North America, fluttered to the nearest branch, and began scratching through the pages so fast, Frank wasn't sure if she was reading or shredding.

Frank leaned against a tree, trying to control his vertigo. He still hadn't recovered from his Amazon imprisonment—getting kicked across the lobby, disarmed, caged, and insulted as a baby man by an egomaniacal horse. That hadn't exactly helped his self-esteem.

Even before that, the vision he had shared with Hazel had left him rattled. He felt closer to her now. He knew he'd done the right thing in giving her the piece of firewood. A huge weight had been taken off his shoulders.

On the other hand, he'd seen the Underworld first hand. He had felt what it was like to sit forever doing nothing, just regretting your mistakes. He'd looked up at those creepy gold masks on the judges of the dead and realized that he would stand before them someday, maybe very soon.

Frank had always dreamed of seeing his mother again when he died. But maybe that wasn't possible for demigods. Hazel had been in Asphodel for something like seventy years and never found her mom. Frank hoped he and his mom would both end up in Elysium. But if Hazel hadn't gotten there—sacrificing her life to stop Gaea, taking responsibility for her actions so that her mother wouldn't end up in Punishment—what chance did Frank have? He'd never done anything that heroic.

And- he remembered seeing Elysium in the distance, Percy had been taken away from that- willingly from what Hazel had said but still. It was a hard thought to swallow, imagining that anyone would be willing to give that up.

He straightened and looked around, trying to get his bearings.

To the south, across Vancouver Harbor, the downtown skyline gleamed red in the sunset. To the north, the hills and rain forests of Lynn Canyon Park snaked between the subdivisions of North Vancouver until they gave way to the wilderness.

Frank had explored this park for years. He spotted a bend in the river that looked familiar. He recognized a dead pine tree that had been split by lightning in a nearby clearing. Frank knew this hill.

"I'm practically home," he said. "My grandmother's house is right over there."

Hazel squinted. "How far?"

"Just over the river and through the woods."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? To Grandmother's house we go?"

Frank cleared his throat. "Yeah, anyway."

Hazel clasped her hands in prayer. "Frank, please tell me she'll let us spend the night. I know we're on a deadline, but we've got to rest, right? And Arion saved us some time. Please, as much as the Poseidon's Joy 2 was amazing I did not get the best rest on there because of my seasickness."

"It would be amazing to have a nice hot shower." Percy agreed, giving Frank a hopeful smile with puppy eyes- and seriously, Percy had the most ridiculous puppy eyes.

Frank stared at them both for a long moment- he tried to imagine his grandmothers face if he showed up with his two new friends and a harpy- so much had changed since his mother's funeral, since the morning the wolves had taken him south. He'd been so angry about leaving. Now, he couldn't imagine going back.

Still, he and his friends were exhausted. They'd been traveling for more than two days without decent food or sleep. Grandmother could give them supplies.

And maybe she could answer some questions that were brewing in the back of Frank's mind—a growing suspicion about his family gift.

"It's worth a try," Frank decided. "To Grandmother's house we go."

Frank was so distracted, he would have walked right into the ogres' camp. Fortunately Percy pulled him back.

They crouched next to Hazel and Ella behind a fallen log and peered into the clearing.

"Bad," Ella murmured. "This is bad for harpies."

It was fully dark now. Around a blazing campfire sat half a dozen shaggy-haired humanoids. Standing up, they probably would've been eight feet tall—tiny compared to the giant Polybotes or even the Cyclopes they'd seen in California, but that didn't make them any less scary. They wore only knee-length surfer shorts. Their skin was sunstroke red—covered with tattoos of dragons, hearts, and bikini-clad women. Hanging from a spit over the fire was a skinned animal, maybe a boar, and the ogres were tearing off chunks of meat with their clawlike fingernails, laughing and talking as they ate, baring pointy teeth. Next to the ogres sat several mesh bags filled with bronze spheres like cannonballs. The spheres must have been hot, because they steamed in the cool evening air.

Two hundred yards beyond the clearing, the lights of the Zhang mansion glowed through the trees. So close, Frank thought. He wondered if they could sneak around the monsters, but when he looked left and right, he saw more campfires in either direction, as if the ogres had surrounded the property. Frank's fingers dug into the tree bark. His grandmother might be alone inside the house, trapped.

"What are these guys?" he whispered.

Percy peered at them, brows furrowing, "I think I've seen them before but I don't know." She said after a moment. "I've seen a lot of monsters. I don't
always remember the names even when my memories aren't screwed with by a goddess."

And Frank winced at that reminder- he couldn't blame Percy for how she'd broke down when he'd confronted her on the Poseidon's joy after the nightmare that had been the gamble she'd made with Phineas- he didn't think he'd ever forget how afraid he'd been- how little Percy had cared about her own life.

But- well, clearly she wasn't suicidal- not any more at least, and hopefully that would last, though he did wonder how long she'd been feeling like that before they'd even met. Lost and alone, fighting for her life, and then finding out she was supposed to be dead, all that pressure and confusion. It made Frank want to protect her- not in the same way as he wanted to protect Hazel- and he knew neither of them even needed his protection but- still, he wanted to protect them. If only he could actually do something useful and not be totally useless he'd actually be able to help them somehow.

He was dragged out of his thoughts by Ella's voice as she plucked a feather from her wings and turned it in her fingers. "Laistrygonians," she said. "Cannibals. Northern giants. Sasquatch legend. Yep, yep. They're not birds. Not birds of North America."

"That's what they're called," Percy agreed. "Laistry—uh, whatever Ella said."

Frank scowled at the dudes in the clearing. "They could be mistaken for Bigfoot. Maybe that's where the legend came from. Ella, you're pretty smart."

"Ella is smart," she agreed. She shyly offered Frank her feather.

"Oh…thanks." He stuck the feather in his pocket, then noticed Hazel was glaring at him. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing." She turned to Percy. "Do you know how to beat them if you remember them?"

"Honestly no. I don't." Percy pulled a face "And even if I did... that would be from before... well before the whole Death issue."

"So now they might not die even if we knew how to kill them," Hazel finished, nodding slowly, "Wonderful."

"Yep. Aren't our lives just wonderful." Percy gave a somewhat manic grin, "What do we do guys?"

"We need to be careful." Frank frowned, "If we make too much noise taking them out then the ogres at the other camps will come running. I think they've surrounded the house, which means there could be fifty or sixty of these guys in the woods."

"So it's a trap." Hazel looked at Frank with concern. "What about your grandmother? We've got to help her."

Frank felt a lump in his throat. Never in a million years had he thought his grandmother would need rescuing, but now he started running combat scenarios in his mind—the way he had back at camp during the war games.

"We need a distraction," he decided. "If we can draw this group into the woods, we might sneak through without alerting the others."

"I wish Arion was here," Hazel said. "I could get the ogres to chase me."

Frank slipped his spear off his back. "I've got another idea."

Frank didn't want to do this. The idea of summoning Gray scared him even more than Hazel's horse. But he didn't see another way.

"Frank, you can't charge out there!" Hazel said. "That's suicide!"

"I'm not charging," Frank said. "I've got a friend. Just…nobody scream, okay?"

He jabbed the spear into the ground, and the point broke off.

"Oops," Ella said. "No spear point. Nope, nope."

The ground trembled. Gray's skeletal hand broke the surface. Percy fumbled for her sword, and Hazel made a sound like a cat with a hairball. Ella disappeared and rematerialized at the top of the nearest tree.

"It's okay," Frank promised. "He's under control!"

Gray crawled out of the ground. He showed no sign of damage from his previous encounter with the basilisks. He was good as a new in his camouflage and combat boots, translucent gray flesh covering his bones like glowing Jell-O. He turned his ghostly eyes toward Frank, waiting for orders.

Percy looked panicked as she stepped back, "Frank that's a spartoi! They're dangerous! Ala-" she winced, face scrunching up, "I- someone sent them after me years ago, Nico and Bianca were the only ones who could kill them. They're evil, killers. Not friendly!"

"I know," Frank said bitterly. "But it's a gift from Mars. Right now that's all I've got. Okay, Gray. Your orders: attack that group of ogres. Lead them off to the west, causing a diversion so we can—"

Unfortunately, Gray lost interest after the word "ogres." Maybe he only understood simple sentences. He charged toward the ogres' campfire.

"Wait!" Frank said, but it was too late. Gray pulled two of his own ribs from his shirt and ran around the fire, stabbing the ogres in the back with such blinding speed they didn't even have time to yell. Six extremely surprised-looking Laistrygonians fell sideways like a circle of dominoes and crumbled into dust.

Gray stomped around, kicking their ashes apart as they tried to re-form. When he seemed satisfied that they weren't coming back, Gray stood at attention, saluted smartly in Frank's direction, and sank into the forest floor.