I'm back with another chapter.

Enjoy chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the Heroes of Olympus. All rights go to Rick Riordan.

IX The Continental Army

(Piper)

It was another normal day at our camp. The leaders yelling at each other. Wasting hundreds of drachmas trying to contact the gods. Fights breaking out because of disputes. Scouts reporting more and more bad news. Exciting, isn't it?

I was about to walk to the headquarters tent to help Annabeth with her phalanx strategy when the alarm bell started ringing. We all formed into the phalanx that we had been practicing. However, when we saw the enemy, we got quite a shock.

"Are those… muskets and blue uniforms?" Percy asked tentatively.

"Di Immortales." Annabeth cursed.

"What?" I asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, that's the American Continental Army back from the dead, with George Washington as leader. Washington had always been my hero."

"Wasn't he your half-sibling?"

"Yes, he is also a son of Athena. He's going to be really hard to beat. He had some of the best strategies. "

Just then, there was a huge BANG! Twenty of us were immediately on the ground, groaning in pain.

"Guns! No fair!" Jason yelled.

"Jason, has fighting Gaea ever been fair?" I asked him.

"Fair point, now get into cover!"

"Where?"

"Anywhere."

After that, there was nothing legible heard. It was chaos, screams, and blood everywhere. The Continental Army charged us with their bayonets, and all hell broke loose. There was the shrieking clash of steel upon steel. Suddenly, something hard and heavy hit me in the side of the head. I saw stars, and everything turned black.

(Nico)

After the battles started, I summoned as much of the dead as I could possible do without knocking myself out. It turned out to be two dozen Greek warriors who charged and wreaked havoc upon Washington and his troops. The good news was, the Greek warriors couldn't die and always resurrected. I had been working on that for weeks, and now it finally paid off. The bad news was, there was so many Continental Army troops that it only took a few hundred of them to clash with the Greek warriors, while all the others could focus on killing my friends and allies. That sucked, so I had to come up with a plan. Well, that was before a huge wall of water combined with a very sever lightning attack destroyed all my warriors and all the enemies. Oh well, you have to sacrifice sometimes.

We looked around at the carnage. There was about five demigods dead, thirty or so injured, and the camp's outer walls were damaged. None of my friends had been hurt or killed, but it was still a time of mourning. From then on, we became super vigilant on scouting missions, not skiving off an area just because we were tired or hungry or something like that.

After the battle, I found myself sitting next to Annabeth, who looked tired, discouraged, and just plain miserable.

"You ok?"
"I'm fine."

"Really? You don't look ok."

"Well, there are two things that are bugging me."

"What?"

"One's Percy. He doesn't seem so comfortable or easygoing as before. He's… changed."

"What's the second?"

"George Washington was one of my heroes. He was a great leader, strategist, and everything I want to be, other than being an architect."

"I know, but it's just another way for Gaea to weaken us. She's going to send our heroes after us. Maybe the real Perseus will come for Percy or something."

"Maybe you're right. Thanks for the advice Nico.

"No problem."

(Jason)

To sum it up easily, we got our butts whipped in that fight. Everything we'd been doing for the last month or so fell apart. The scouts hadn't been diligent enough to forewarn us that George Washington and his Continental Army was coming after us. Our phalanx failed because the enemy had guns. Everything sucked.

The only positive side of that fight was it was a real shock for the scouts. They now diligently went through every single bit of ground that they were supposed to cover and reported all the monster camps to us promptly. That was good.

Also, we finally managed to get contact through to the gods. It wasn't Zeus who answered, but Hermes. At least we did manage to contact a god. Hermes agreed to try and get all the major and a few minor gods together and persuade Zeus to come and help us. Hopefully, Hermes and the others can do that. If they can't persuade Zeus, we may be very screwed, since we can't kill any giant, and all the minor monsters can be summoned again and again by Gaea.

I was talking to Leo, who had another meeting with Gaea.

"This time she offered me my mother, immunity forever, and a prominent position in the rule of the giants. Also, she told me that I'd get Khione."

I remembered Khione. She was beautiful, but cruel. However, because of how "hot" she is, I can understand why Leo has a crush on her. I mean, he has a crush on almost every "hot" girl, which includes my sister, which kind of freaks me out.

"I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I know what it feels like to lose family. I lost Thalia and my mother at a young age. I wouldn't blame you if you chose to side with Gaea, just to see your mother again. We would really want you on our side, but if you feel like your mother is too big of a price to pay, we will understand your choice."

"Hell, I'm not listening to some earth lady who although is immune to toilet seats, will die eventually."

I smiled at his joke. "That's the spirit, Leo."

Hopefully, Leo will always be the same old Leo. Sometimes, his corny jokes are great for making you laugh when things turn bleak and the fight seems desperate.

Later, during planning, Hazel fainted and had another one of her flashbacks. She nearly died from this experience. I don't know why, but she stopped breathing after a little bit. Fortunately, she apparently didn't need air. Unfortunately, when we tried to give her CPR because we didn't know that she could survive with just the air in her memories, it nearly killed her. It took her a full two weeks to recover. Thankfully, we didn't need her skills during those two weeks. There were no battles. Gaea hasn't sent monsters after us.

I wonder why?

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-RAfan2421