Nothing.

Was I dead? I thought it would hurt quite a bit more than it did. I thought your whole life flashes before your eyes but all there was was a few tears that blurred my vision and stung as they rolled of my lashes and sped down my cheeks. I could just make out that I was still lying on the churned up grass, was I a ghost? Or was it just a delayed reaction? And I would whisked of to the afterlife in no time.

I stared down at my torn and ragged clothes and contemplated the possibility that I might still be alive because there was still blood oozing out of my wounds. I wasn't quite sure whether this was a good thing or not.

I scanned my surroundings to check what had happened to stop me from pushing up daisies. The scene that greeted my eyes was the last one on earth (and off of it, come to think of it) that I had expected; the crumpled body of the Cyclops lay at the feet of four trembling girls, in whose pale hands was a giant hammer.

I gasped in awe at what these four had just done, they looked pretty stunned too, dropping the giant deceased Cyclops weapon as if they hadn't realised they were holding it. Lifting it had obviously required their combined strength.

The Cyclops groaned and I realised that he wasn't dead. At that point everything started to happen all at once. I started to push myself up to finish the job but my limbs were like jelly, Daisy rushed to my side and attempted to use herself as a crutch, lifting me to my feet, a moment later I felt another firm grip on my other arm. Turning, I realised Sam had rushed to my other side. She seemed to have a strange expression on her face, a mixture of horror and concern. Maybe I was dead and just imagining what might of happened because this couldn't be real.

The other two – Ellie and Grish – had retrieved both fallen arms. Grish was holding my weapon a little warily in one hand, careful not to look at the deadly spikes too much. Ellie was clutching the sinister hockeystick blade, a rather reluctant look on her face.

A moment of silence passed and I realised that neither of them really wanted to finish the deed. So I nodded and reached out with one shaking hand.

"I will do it" I rasped "thank you all the same but its only right that I do this"

I grounded myself just over the mumbling monster, my legs were still a bit wobbly but I was able to stand unsupported now. I beckoned hastily at them, communicating the exigency of the situation.

Both looked dubious but they eventually passed me their armaments, a small sigh of relief escaping as they let go, unnoticeable to most people but I did hear. I took a deep rattling breathe, held the two weapons over my enemy and paused just for a moment.

I silently counted in my head. One. Two. Three. On three I hauled both arms down although I stared straight at the sky, I really wasn't comfortable with this, my only consolation was that if I did it then my petrified fellows wouldn't.

Another blast of powder and everything was over.

I turned my back on the scene and began to trip and stumble away using my staff and the sword as walking sticks, this really hadn't gone very well and I wasn't going to hang around to clean up. A positive was that I was still living, well sort of. Now I had to get to my bag and the healing foodstuffs that was there.

"Wait!" a voice called tentatively from behind me "your hurt, we need to get you to a hospital" it slightly trailed of at the end and I knew it was the shy one, Ellie.

"I will be fine, thank you" this trying to disguise my voice wasn't really consistent in pitch or accent but on the plus it didn't sound like me, well it didn't sound like anyone.

"Who are you? Are you sure you don't need medical help?" Ellie was definitely picking up confidence "What was that thing? Why was it here? why has everyone got swords and stuff? why did it come after us? And how are we going to explain all this?" she must have meant the devastation that I was slowly hobbling away from.

I smiled under my scarf at how similar her reaction had been to mine and began to answer her questions as best I could "I am your protector. I am not sure medicine can do a lot for me. You don't need to know what and why it was here because it would be worse for you if you did. To fight obviously. It's very complicated why it was you specifically but it will all become clear one day. It will work itself out, I think it will anyway" I replied evenly.

"Um... yes and thank you for saving us" with that I was out of earshot.

I eventually reached my bag, I slung it over my shoulder and carried on towards the tool shed where I knew no one would be and I would have some privacy.

As soon as I was out of sight I collapsed against the cool corrugated iron side and just sat for a moment and thought about what had just happened, taking in the sharp sobering smell of machine oil.

It was a total disaster. I had set out to protect them – be the hero – but I had almost got myself killed and that would have probably resulted in everyone else dying too. How could I have let that happen? I had failed them. I had underestimated and it had almost cost me dearly. Admittedly I hadn't really had that much practice at monster killing, it wasn't on most school curricula (well not to the best of my knowledge), I hadn't actually died but that was irrelevant because I needed help from four unsuspecting demigods not to be.

I jolted awake, my eyes snapped open. I had nearly given in but I needed to carry on (stiff upper lip and all that), make sure that this mistake wouldn't happen again. I pulled the plastic bag and canteen out of my bag.

I swigged a couple of large mouthfuls out of the canteen, I wasn't sure what it was going to taste like but at this point I didn't care as long as it made me feel stronger, surprisingly it had creamy taste that was almost fizzy too, it reminded me of my favourite drink at home, ice-cream soda (a combination of vanilla ice-cream and lemonade for those unfortunate not to have tasted it yet).

I took a few bites of cake squares but there wasn't anything so delicious as the nectar and soon the canteen was empty, I stopped after that, remembering that if I had too much I would burn up from the inside, that would be a waste seeing as how I had put all that effiort into not doing so.

After examining my wounds which now looked days old I made my way back to my room, to clean up and get changed, it wouldn't do to be recognised as the scruffy kid with the battle scars after trying so hard to conceal my identity. How superhero did that sound? Maybe I could be a sort of superhero to them, saving them and having a double life. I hoped I wasn't going to develop a complex after that.

I grinned at this thought but it soon fell when I remembered that something was wrong but I just couldn't put my finger on what it was, something important and probably urgent but it lay just out of reach, this irritated me.

I pushed this aside and thought of my inevitable meeting with my new comrades, I would get detention for skipping Geography and they would definitely be in some trouble about the giant metal crafting implement in the middle of the games pitch. I wondered what they would say about their mystery hooded figure saving them. It might be too hard to keep my secret but I couldn't tell them because that would put them in more danger than they already were, which was quite a lot to begin with.

I pulled my sticky hoodie over my head, poking a couple of fingers through the large hole torn into the sleeve and a large dark stain spreading out around it, how would I explain this to the laundry people?

-x-

Sure enough, as I slipped into the classroom at the end of the day I saw the huddled group talking animately, demonstrating with large sweeping motions.

Obviously the news of what happened had spread through the school quicker than a streaker in a convent so everyone was whispering and alluding to all kinds of things that were ridiculous (in some cases physically impossible). I wasn't sure how much the mortals had seen but I wouldn't be able to find out because the story had so many versions that it was impossible to tell fact from rumour. The main jist was that a masked criminal had come into the school and decapitated a new sports teacher and stabbed another in the back and left with the bodies, a disturbing and violent attack by a random lunatic. They say all publicity is good publicity. So much for my superhero persona.

I approached slowly, my legs were still quite sore. I choose a seat next to Ellie who at that point was listening to the others jabber on, a pensive expression on her face.

"What's up?" I ask conversationally, purposefully skirting round the subject that I was bursting to get into.

"Oh it's you" charming greeting "nothing much... except for the obvious attack on us today"

"it was your class then?" I try to sound upbeat, ignoring the blatant sarcasm in her voice.

"Yes and we have some very interesting theories on who it was?" Grish cuts in, a mischievous spark in her eye.

I raise an eyebrow, this should be interesting I wonder how ridiculous these would turn out to be.

"We know it's definitely a student, hight and weight. We know it wasn't how everyone says it is, the masked person did save us and we need to find him so as we can thank him and find out more, he gave us some very cryptic cllues"

she dives into an in depth recollection of their P.E lesson, I nod at the appropriate times, looking suitable shocked and scared. The others added bits and bobs that they thought were important. There were many things that they got right for example that the monsters did indeed have only one eye each but they put I down to a genetic disorder.

"... after Ellie thanked him he just walked away. Leaving us standing there like a lemons" Grish concluded with a small wink.

"Guess what?" Sam leant forward conspiratorially and the rest of us did likewise "we know who it is"

My head began to spin, had they actually guessed already? how much I had done to stop them from knowing who I was and they had probably guessed. My thoughts began to race and merged into to one.

Had they guessed who I was.