I do not own PJO or A:TLA

Chapter 30

"We didn't make it." Sokka gasped. "The fleets taking off."

"Where?" Toph asked.

"Slightly to the left- AAHHH." Percy and Sokka screamed as Toph launched them through the air and onto a passing airship.

It was incredible. Percy hadn't seen anything like it since he came to this world. It was huge and made of metal, like a destruction and horror with a motor.

But before he had time to admire the workmanship, his body was slammed into the side of it, they slid for a few seconds before catching onto something pulling themselves up.

"Okay, we gotta get to the control room." Sokka said, slightly shaken and out of breath.

"Follow me." Toph took off.

"Wait!" Percy pulled them back. "Look."

Off in the distance, Percy could make out a giant with huge hell-hounds at his feet, being restrained by leashes. Even though the ground was getting further and further every second, Percy could see the bloodshot eye in the middle of the giants face and the sharp, snarling snouts of the hell-hounds. If that wasn't bad enough, the Nemean Lion leaped beside the cyclops, looking around, it's beautiful golden coat glinting in the light of the comet.

"Oh, come on!" Percy shouted at them. "Didn't I already kill you?"

"What is it?" Toph shrieked impatiently. "What's going on?"

"Are those...?" Sokka trailed off.

Percy's face darkened. "Yup." He popped the 'p' and glared down at the ground. "Monsters. And they look strong and hungry."

Sokka stared at Percy for a few seconds and then looked behind them at the warship they were on, the last one in a huge fleet of the machines. "You have to go." He said finally, and gripped Toph's hand.

"What? I can't leave you!" Percy protested. "I'll help you guys first. We have to take down this fleet of warships!" He knew that he couldn't abandon his new friends. Not like this. Even if a small army of monsters were marching closer and closer to unprotected civilization. "I-I can't leave you." He repeated weakly.

"Yes, you can."

"We'll be fine, Sea Legs." Toph agreed, pulling herself closer to Sokka. "If you gotta go fight those monsters, go."

"We don't have time to waste." Sokka stepped forward and gripped Percy's shoulder with his hand. He squeezed it tight and looked him in the eye, warrior to warrior. "Go. We can handle this."

Sokka pulled Percy into a one armed hug as he was still holding Toph's hand. "I mean, as long as you think you'll be fine down there, with all those monsters."

Percy laughed quickly. "I'll try to find you guys as soon as I can." He reached out and tousled Toph's hair and patter Sokka on the shoulder. "Good luck, guys. I'm sorry." He wished with all his heart he could stay with his friends and help them, but he was the only one that could deal with these monsters. It was his duty to this world.

He glanced back one last time and jumped off the side of the ship without a second thought. He concentrated on what Toph had said before, about being immovable. As the earth sped towards him, he focused on making the earth move, to reach up and envelop him and deliver him gently to the ground so he didn't become a half-blood pancake.

It worked. First, the earth reached up ad snatched him from midair and then he used it to grow two giant extensions of his legs so he could speed across the plain to where the monsters were.

Earth bending is AWESOME. He thought. How helpful would this have been an ANY of his other quests?

He uncapped Riptide and smiled at the weight of it in his hands. Finally, he was done feeling useless. He was about to do what he had been trained to do. What he had been doing ever since he was twelve years old. What he lived to do.

Fight monsters.

The cyclops saw him coming long before he reached them, which took away any benefit of surprise he could have used. The giant roared when he saw Percy and Riptide and he let go of the leashes holding about a dozen hell-hounds. The hell-hounds barked and howled and raced towards Percy, red eyes burning.

His muscles tensed and he let the earth give him one final shove that launched him over the hoard of hell-hounds and landed behind them. They all stumbled and tripped over each other to try and get to him, but they were confused and Percy had no problem cutting them down. His arms slicing and slashing, his body ducking and rolling and dodging.

fighting for his life made everything seem so clear, so real. He saw one of the air ships drop a whole crew into the ocean below and slowly start to take over the rest of the fleet to get to the big one leading the attack. Sokka and Toph knew what they were doing, they could cause havoc wherever they were.

Percy rolled over the massive claws of the last hell-hounds and stabbed it the rear, it whined for a second before bursting into dust all over him.

"Yuck." He muttered, spitting out the stuff that had gotten into his mouth.

"MY BABIES!" The cyclops roared angrily, his face burned red and his eyes looked murderous. He swung his club off his back and advanced towards Percy.

His club was at least the size of Percy, maybe bigger. The giant loomed up. Above him.

"Okay, we can do this the hard way, or the easy way." Percy told him calmly, secretly hoping he'd pick the hard way.

The cyclops only roared and swung his heavy club down. Percy dove out of the way and as the club hit the ground and created a crater the size of a house, Percy rolled to his knees and copied moves from Toph and Aang to make the earth closed over it and trap it in the ground. The cyclops was forced to let go as the end of his club was covered in earth, the handle sticking out like a sore thumb on the empty plains.

"So, hard way." Percy grinned wickedly. "I'm just showing off now."

"Puny half-blood." The cyclops panted, rage extorting every muscle of his face. "You drag me here just to kill me."

Percy leveled his sword. "Not quite." He took a running start up the half of the club that was sticking out of the earth and used the handle to jump up to the cyclops face. But he had forgotten the Nemean Lion.

The giant beast tackled him midair and took him down. They hit the ground and Percy felt the wind get knocked out of him. Luckily, the lion rolled a little ways further than him. Getting up, it shook it's mane and roared, shaking the ground.

Percy shakily got to his feet. He had been cocky before, but now, staring down the mouth of the Nemean Lion and a giant cyclops, he suddenly remembered why half-bloods NEVER went on quests alone.

"Alright..." He looked around for something to help. The lion growled deep and low and started pacing while the cyclops began tugging his club back up from the earth. "Alright!" Percy shouted at them. "You want a piece of this? Come and get it!" He tuned on his heels and began to earth bend again, like two rolling hills under his feet to move him closer to the edge of the ocean they had just swam out of. He knew that both the monsters were right on his heels, but he just focused on moving.

There was a fantastic explosion from up in the air, but fire was pouring out of the aircrafts in a beautiful and terrible display of power. The lead one, where Fire Lord Ozai had been was already falling to the ground but a small speck of flying fire made Percy doubt he was dead yet.

"PERCY?!"

Percy was so shocked he stopped earth bending and fell. He hit the ground and skidded and rolled, pain everywhere in his body. His vision was blurred and slightly red around the edges but he saw about a dozen girls in heavy leather dresses with bright face paint and metal... fans?

Old Chinese style fans made of metal.

Percy thought for sure he had passed out and this was some kind of dream. He shook his head and looked again.

These girls where everywhere. Throwing their sheilds or fans at the lion. Who only roared in annoyance and tried to pounce on them,but there was too many and he was getting confused. The cyclops, who was still a few paces behind, stopped and looked at them in confusion.

"Pretty ladies." He muttered, dazed.

Percy couldn't lift himself up, he tried twice and only got a face full of dirt. But he had to save these girls. they couldn't stand against the Nemean Lion and a giant cyclops for more than a few seconds without him.

He put his hand to the ground and felt, like Toph had shown him. She had shown him how you could feel the vibrations and a surface level, but also much deeper. He felt deeper and deeper into the earth until he felt the rushing water below.

Mustering up all his strength into his powers, Percy screamed out loud as he called the water forth from underground.

There was a soft rumbling sound that grew louder and louder.

"Take cover, girls!" The voice yelled again. He knew it sounded familiar... but where?

The girls all ran and ducked behind a huge boulder as the water bust from underground. It swept Percy up, healing him almost instantly and also sweeping the Nemean Lions feet from under him. He roared in dismay and got a mouth full of salt water. He retched and choked and before he's brain even caught up with his reflexes, Percy threw his sword like a javielin straight into the mouth of the beast.

He rolled over and started shrinking, as he had done last time into Percy's prize. His spoils of war.

Standing in the middle of a small lake, Percy looked up at the cyclops, who was still looking around for the girls.

"Oh, pretty ladies! Pretty ladies!" He called out. "Do you taste good? Or should you be my wife? Or wifes?" He laughed and his blood-shot eye traveled around before landing on Percy. Suddenly, his glee was gone and anger replaced it again.

"My frieeeeeends!" He yelled. "Murder! Murder! Nasty half-blood!"

Riptide still hadn't appeared in Percy's pockets, but the cyclops began to charge.

The girls jumped from behind the rock again and all threw their shields like freebees at the feet of the giant. He stumbled and crashed down to the ground with a mighty sound. Once down, he didn't move.

Percy thought he must have been knocked out, but knew he wasn't dead.

"Percy!" The one girl yelled again. She ran over and peered into Percy face. "It's me, Suki!"

Right! The other girl that had been there when he woke up. It seemed like so long ago that had happened, plus her full face of makeup did not make it easy to recognize her.

"C'mon! We have to go! I think he's dead." Suki pulled on his arms, tugging him away from the ugly body of the monster.

"No, he's not dead." Percy answered, still a little in shock. Riptide came back to him, he felt it materialize in his clothes. He pulled it out and uncapped it. Some of the girls gasped and started whispering.

It is true."

"I didn't believe..."

"It's magic."

"Only this sword can kill him." Percy said darkly.

"Okay, then kill him so we can go help Sokka." Suki said impatiently. "Hurry!"

Percy advanced slowly. He knew he didn't have the stomach to kill a monster while it was unconscious. Everyone at camp mocked him, said he was too much of a hero to be a hero. They said it would cost him his life some day. But... he just couldn't. Not in cold blood like this.

"I can't."

"What? I just saw you kill that other monster! What's so different about this one? I thought you trained for this!" Suki argued.

"No." Percy repeated. "Not until he's awake. I just can't strike him down in the back like this."

The girls started whispering again.

The giant moaned and moved slightly.

"See?" Percy pointed to the monster with his blade. "He'll wake up soon and it can be a fair fight."

"This. is. war. Percy. I understand you need to be ethical, but this is just crazy!"

Percy stood his ground and looked her steadily in the eye. "I'm not crazy. This is just who I am, okay? And I'm going to wait for him to wake up so we can fight to the death like civilized people."

She stared back but eventually looked away. "Fine. Waste time. We're moving on. We have to go find Sokka."

Percy pointed up. The warship that he had guessed was Sokka and Toph was turned back around, it looked like it was going to crash into the line of other ships. "I'm not sure how you're planning on getting up there, but I can help as soon as I finished up here."

Suk looked up and the back down at Percy and then at the cyclops that was slowly raising himself to his knees. "Where... half-blood?" He gasped.

"Fine!" She took a fighting stance but Percy shook his head.

"I'm the only one. He'll only die if he's cut by my sword." Percy showed it off, the celestial bronze glinting wickedly.

The reddish orange light was starting to give him a headache, the haziness of the setting seemed so wrong for his sweat drenched body and aching limbs.

"Half-blood.." The cyclops was on his feet now, club in hand.

"Ready to go, big guy?" Percy taunted.

The girls all backed off to watch the fight play out. Percy wasn't sure who Suki was cheering for anymore, but he'd give them all a show.

He pulled off his shirt, it was covered in monster dust and mud and had been torn and burnt all up anyways. With sword in hand, he took a stance.

"Let's dance."

The cyclops didn't even bothering yelling anymore, just swung his club at Percy, careful to not let it touch the ground. But what he wasn't ready for was Percy hitting the ground and laying on his back. He kicked upwards and a strand of water obeyed his movements, similar to Katara's infamous move the Water Whip. The water smacked the giant in the eye and he stumbled backwards. The water rose up and froze his feet in place. Percy ran at the monster and used the earth to kick himself upwards towards the cyclops chest. With one swift movement, Percy stabbed him in the chest and fell gracefully to the ground where he rolled out of the way of the shower of monster dust.

He stood up and picked his sword off the ground and quickly wiped it down before recapping it and hiding it in his pockets.

"Ready to go help your boyfriend?" He asked Suki.

She turned her big eyes towards the ships just as the one crashed into all the others, running along on top so it would hit every ship in the line. There was explosion after explosion and the fire reflected in her big, horrified eyes.

"We have to go now."

PLZ ENJOY THIS BIG CHAPTER BEFORE YOU ALL GO BACK TO SCHOOL TOMORROW!

I also posted the first chapter of my How I Met Your Mother/Percy Jackson crossover! It's called 'The Perfect Student's Mistake'. If you wanna go check it out and leave a review, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Bye, my friends 3