The beach was practically empty, so it would be easy to find them. Just as they spotted the girls, something attacked them.
"Didn't think you got rid of me forever, did you?" a familiar voice snarled. All four demigods turned around.
"Kelli," Annabeth snarled back, obviously not happy to see the empousa again. There was a whole group of empousi, probably the same ones who had attacked Annabeth and Percy in Tartarus. Kelli and Tammi were still wearing their Goode High School cheer outfits, which made Percy wonder if they ever washed them. He guessed monsters didn't have to worry about being clean. Kelli looked beautiful, but they knew what was under all that mist. A horrible combination of animal, bronze, and ghost that sprouted off the vampire legend.
"Ever since that stupid Titan of yours saved you in Tartarus, I have been reforming, plotting my revenge on you. Today, I will finally get that revenge. Especially for killing my Lukey-poo." When Kelli said the last part, her bottom lip stuck out in a pout, which made her even more beautiful. Jason, not having seen Kelli before, was totally lovestruck.
"Jason. Snap out of it," Piper demanded. Jason blinked a few times and kept his eyes on Piper. Kelli snarled and all the empousi started to change into their true forms. They were vampires from the waist up, red eyes, pale skin, and fangs. Below the waist was where it got weird. Their left legs were brown and shaggy with donkey's hooves. Their right legs were shaped like human legs but they were made of bronze.
Kelli stood back and sent the other four empousi to attack the demigods. One lunged at Percy. He sidestepped and brought his sword down on her back. She burst into dust. Annabeth locked eyes with Percy and they made a silent agreement. Annabeth put her Yankee's cap on, forcing the empousa that was attacking her to move onto Percy. Percy killed her easily. Piper tried using her charmspeak but the empousi weren't affected by it. So Piper just settled on taking out her ice sword and stabbing the monster through the stomach. Jason flipped his coin and was holding an Imperial Gold sword. But he didn't need it, he just called on some lightning, shocking the monster in her bronze leg. She burst into dust with a sizzling POP!
The only one left was Kelli. She smiled evilly and said, "Come on, son of Poseidon. Attack me. You are no match for the senior empou…" Kelli burst mid-sentence. Standing behind her was Annabeth, Yankee's cap in one hand and her dagger in the other. They all high-fived and congratulated each other but the feeling quickly faded.
"I knew it was right to have our weapons," Annabeth said.
"This is bad. Australia was supposed to be the one place without all this stuff!" Percy exclaimed.
"Uh, guys," Jason said and nodded his head towards the girls who were standing there, mouths wide open. Percy walked up to them and snapped his fingers.
"You did not just see four teenagers with weapons fighting monsters. We were just walking on the beach." They all looked up at him, clearly unimpressed.
"What are you talking about? Yes, we did," Rikki snapped.
"What were those things?" Cleo asked, a little scared.
"What are those?" Emma asked, pointing to their weapons.
"Annabeth? What went wrong? You felt the mist didn't you?" Percy whispered to Annabeth. She nodded.
"Maybe they can see through it, like Rachel," Piper suggested.
"But all three of them? That's very unlikely," Annabeth said.
"What should we do?" Piper asked.
"Maybe we should act like it never happened. They might forget about it," Jason said.
***NONE OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY BELONG TO ME. THEY ARE PROPERTY OF RICK RIORDAN AND JONATHAN M. SHIFF
"No. Grover and Chiron tried to do that to me when I first battled Mrs. Dodds. It doesn't work," Percy explained.
"We should ask Chiron," Annabeth concluded. Percy, Annabeth, and Jason walked over to the water, leaving Piper to distract the girls. Percy made the water spray into mist and Annabeth threw a golden drachma into it.
"O'Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Chiron at Camp Half-Blood," Percy said. Annabeth still wasn't used to asking Fleecy to do Iris messages, but Percy seemed to like it. Chiron was singing along to the campfire songs that they knew so well. The three of them actually started singing along, but they realized it was urgent. They had to yell Chiron's name a few times to get him to notice them. Once he did, he walked to a place that wasn't as noisy.
"What is the matter?" Chiron asked, obviously annoyed that they pulled him away during his favorite song.
"We have a problem," Annabeth explained all about the mermaids and the monsters, ending with telling him how the mist didn't work.
"Oh yes. I was wondering when you were going to run into a monster. My cousins have been reporting about the recent uprise in monster sightings."
"Wait, the Party Ponies live in Australia too?" Percy asked.
"That doesn't matter. What does matter is that you knew we were going to be attacked, yet you didn't tell us!" Annabeth exclaimed.
"Well, I knew you could handle it. You are the best demigods of this century. And I wanted you to enjoy your vacation. Not constantly be worrying about monsters," Chiron paused. "But there is something I wanted to discuss with you. I need you to stay in Australia for a few more months," Chiron said.
"A few months?!"
"Yes. Argus already bought you a house and enrolled you in school. There have been so many more monsters there than we're used to seeing. I'm afraid there is something big coming." Then Grover comes running up to Chiron.
"Chiron! Rachel just spoke another prophecy."