PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE CHAPTER.
Ahem. Thank you. I have some things to discuss.
First thing's first: I know I haven't updated in a while (well...I would've liked to update at least every two days instead of what, four?) and thank you SerenaRose3 for mentioning my mistake in the last chapter. I don't know what came over me thinking that Percy's eyes are blue! My eyebrows are knitted together in confusion as well. It's probably because the kid at my school whom I imagine as Percy because he looks like an exact replica of Perseus Jackson. But he has blue eyes and so I guess I ended up describing his eyes. I know it's not Percy Jackson, but this guy's eyes are so beautiful...I'm swooning...
No, but what I should've said in the last chapter is that they are sea green with shards that spark with just a slight blue-green tint in them. They fade out, becoming a nice lagoon that you can almost swim in until the color turns into a mint green around the border...
I'll stop while I'm ahead because ah...Annabeth over here is also swooning.
Now, to talk about this chapter. It isn't exactly a full chapter but then agian it is..that doesn't make sense, does it? Take it this way- the positive way- there's going to be another chapter after this! Woohoo! For those of you who are cringing, thinking, "UGH...get it over with already! I want to see how it ends!" there, there. Do not fear. I'm bringing this story to a nice and smooth ending instead of drastically crash-landing.
Excuse my rambling.
I do not own PJO or Spider-Man.
The first instinct that washed over Leo when he saw the hydra barreling toward them like a mom at a sale was "fire". He leaned against the wall, crunching his fingers into the dusty cement, to help himself up. The way he crashed against the hard floor might've caused him to have a sprained ankle or worse. Nonetheless, he limped forward.
"Leo, what are you doing?!" Jason screamed at the other side of the room. He was mad at Leo for trying to be brave when he could get killed—right in front of him and Piper.
Leo ignored Jason and bent down, making his stance sturdier. He looked up at the monster that was still coming straight towards him with a glare that, to Percy, looked stronger than Annabeth's.
The head on the right was forming a giant, poisonous spit wad in its toxic throat as the one on the left began to form bile made out of fire.
Leo thrust out his palms at the hydra without thinking. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to conjure all of the fire he could. He could feel his hands burning, stinging with a beautiful sensation that only made his skin tickle.
Annabeth knew what he was up to. He was going to be wrong in his calculations and then he would be killed. Not by the fire, but the poison. Annabeth scrambled to her feet, her fingers scraping against the wall. "Leo, no!" She screamed. "You can't fight fire with fire!"
Leo's breath caught in his throat, a surprised grunt escaping his lips. "Oh, crap," he thought, "that's right." He cursed as he took down his hands and thought of something quick before he became a toxic shish-ka-bob.
"A dead, deep fried one at that,"
His hand then slammed into his tool belt and he brought out his hammer. He swung it around and around, building the energy and strength. He thought about just slamming it into its gut, but that wouldn't make much difference.
Before he knew it, the hydra was feet away from him and it dipped its heads, one head snapping at him and the other two's jaws were wide open, weapons ready to blow and engulf him.
He yelped and rolled to the side, quickly scrambling to his feet once out of the hydra's path.
But it caught the movement. The fire and poison burst aimlessly at nothing but air. It was fast as it snapped its jaws together and swung all three heads toward him at a low arch, slamming against his side.
He yelled in pain as the force of the heads was making the pain excruciating. He was sent flying into the air, making a distance of 10 feet, and then landing in the wall. Leo could barely feel the sting shooting up his calf and the bad rock band playing in his head, making his head feel like it was being cut in half with an axe; like it wasn't attached to his neck. He saw several mini-Festus's fly around his head. Then complete blackness overwhelmed him.
The hydra threw its head back and shrieked. To Percy, it was like it was laughing with gloat. He stood next to Annabeth, who already had her dagger out. Percy dragged out Riptide and it grew eagerly, the blade shining under the Olympus lights; the bronze seeming to be gold. Percy looked around and found that the gods had left. Percy scoffed bitterly. Annabeth's hand clamped onto his arm. His breath caught in his throat and he saw her eyes cutting furiously like they were trying to make up a plan—which wasn't a new sight to him. He followed where she was looking.
Piper felt panic surge through her gut. Leo was hurt—very badly at that. She crawled through the dust, covering her mouth so that it didn't clog her lungs (which were already tight with fear), and made her way to Leo. First things first: was he breathing? Piper saw Leo's chest slowly move up and down, taking ragged and shallow breaths. But other than that, he seemed to be able to breathe. That only meant one thing—that he was probably knocked unconscious.
The three-headed monster stopped laughing, though it sounded like it was choking up a hairball, and looked at the unconscious Leo. Its chest swelled with pride and hot air as one head conjured fire again. It was smart enough to know that it could kill two heroes at once.
"We need to distract it." Annabeth said. Percy was about to act, but Jason and Thalia was thinking the same thing.
"HEY! IDIOT-FOR-BRAINS!" Thalia screamed at it as she cocked an arrow into the string. The hydra hesitated. Jason flipped his coin and kicked his foot off the ground and pushed himself into the air, flying. His Roman sword grew with dignity.
"BARF HEAD!"
The hydra knew that Thalia was addressing to it, but it tried to ignore her as it set its mind back to the two heroes.
"STUPID TRIPLETS!" She roared.
That got its attention.
Before it set to charge, it halted at the insult. It made a small, skeptical purr that turned into a spine-shivering growl as all three heads turned toward her. Its lip curled and it got the poison and fire ready.
But Thalia already had her bow pointed right between the eyes of the middle head.
Its scream was raw and you could feel how much it was hurting. Gold blood trickled down its forehead, stinging its beady, venomous purple eyes. The middle head shook and thrashed around, making the aim for the other two uncertain. It stumbled in a half circle, the three heads swinging rapidly as if they were trying to shake the arrow out of its head. The two on the sides snapped at the middle one, reaching for the arrow thinking that would stop the wound.
They stopped stomping around enough for Jason to swing his sword at it. Unfortunately, it sliced off a head.
That burst Percy Jackson into action. "Well don't do that!" He hollered and tore into the battle. He swung Riptide at the monster and cut deep into its thigh. The two that remained cried, but shook its leg, almost kicking Percy into a wall next to Leo.
Where the right neck was open, sprouted two hydra heads.
Jason growled furiously at his mistake. His knuckles clenched tighter, making him angrier and desperate to kill this monster. It knocked his friend unconscious, wanted to set his girlfriend and best friend on fire, and was getting on his last nerve. Jason didn't care about the extra head; he forgot about it instantly with knew that he wasn't going down without a fight.
He snapped as he began to not actually cut off the head, but injure the heads. He sliced cuts into his scaly skin; he slammed down the hilt of his sword into one's forehead. He could feel the leathery skin and the skull shake from his blow. He could then hear a small crack.
Percy began to climb up the side of the monster. The smell was revolting—like dead mushrooms that had been in the trash can for a month. He had an image of Smelly Gabe in his head. That only made his temper rise.
He dug the sword deeper into the skin, helping haul himself up. He knew the small cuts wouldn't do any good but if he could just get up to the chest and if Jason could stall it just a little longer…
But Jason had been trying to dodge the columns of fire and the balls of poison. He couldn't keep it up much longer; the air was being burnt and he was running out of energy from staying in the air that long. But he still had one trick up his sleeve. He flew around the hydra, facing it.
The four heads turned, shifting its whole body.
Jason kept flying in circles, making not just the monster, but his own head a racket in his skull. But he smiled at it, a bemused and crooked smile that made him look evil.
The hydra spun around in circles, its tail knocking down the rest of the counters that used to present glasses.
Thalia kept shooting arrows, not caring nor knowing where they ended up. With the monster spinning right in front of her, if she just set some through the air, it could hit it anywhere.
Unfortunately, she didn't know Percy was clinging onto its side for dear life.
Percy held his sword, which was now stuck into its shoulder blade, with both hands. His sneakers squeaked as they tried to find something to stand on besides the slippery and wrinkly skin. But that wasn't his biggest issue. His second biggest issue was trying not to throw up. With the smell engulfing his nostrils, setting off something unpleasant inside of him, and the giant movements of the monster, he could taste the bile as it rose to his throat. He puffed out his cheeks, holding his breath so that he didn't let all puke break loose.
No, that wasn't his biggest issue either. Suddenly, the back of an arrow plunged from the leathery skin just centimeters away from Percy's head. Percy swallowed down the bile from shock. He stared at it, his green (A/N: Got it right this time) eyes shining with horror, terror written all over his face. The monster stopped spinning and so Percy looked over his shoulder, getting a small glimpse of Thalia, her hand over her mouth with shock like she just realized he was there, but also trying to suppress her smile.
His eyes were wide and his eyebrows knitted. "Thalia!" He stretched her name, lingering over the vowel.
She took her hand from her lips, smiling, but still concerned. "Sorry! I didn't know Spider-Man would be here!"
"I—ARGGH!" Percy wasn't sure if it was a scream or a yell, just some deep, instinctive growl that came from the depths of his throat. But the monster had started moving again.
Annabeth screamed. She had been fighting on the ground, slashing at its stomach with her dagger. To her, it was like a practicing dummy back at Camp Half-Blood. Sweat was trickling down her temple and matted her shirt to her back and her blond side bangs to her cheeks. She blew them aside and suddenly remembered that she was still wearing glasses. They were so light that she had forgotten about them. She might've had doubts before about them, but now she absolutely loved them. There was something unsettling in her stomach. Leo had made these glasses and what struck her as confused was that they had no power—all they did was help her eyesight.
Or so she thought.
This was the main thing she loved the most about training and fighting—she could think her disturbing thoughts and solve their puzzle. There was something that Leo was trying to tell her before the hydra came bounding through.
"What was he trying to tell me?" Annabeth wondered.
The only disadvantage to thinking while fighting was that she noticed the mangy paw swinging at her at the last second. She saw it coming at her in the corner of her eye, and did a double take. A surprised grunt escaped her lips and she jumped back. It snipped her shirt, making claw marks in the sweating cotton just above her belly button.
She screamed in surprise, but then calmed herself knowing she wasn't seriously hurt. But the act had her stumbling back, tripping over a block of cement. She yelped as she fell backwards, her legs kicking from behind the stone, scratching at the backs of her knees. Her glasses jumped and thudded against the bridge of her nose and forehead.
Thankfully, Leo had built the lens with a type of glass that couldn't be scratched or smudged And although she already knew they couldn't fall that easily from her ears, she instinctively thrust her hands to her face, her slender fingers accidentally pressing down on the two gray owls—one on each side of the thick black border.
They pressed into the handles, setting something off as Annabeth heard a small click. The glasses had whirred to life.
When she first put them on, she thought she was seeing something wondrous, but this…this was a whole new world to Annabeth. Along the lens, she could see icy white lines cross through her vision, lacing paths. For a split second, she thought they had cracked. But then she saw squares and circles that focused on everything around her. Letter appeared, explaining what she was seeing exactly. It described the hydra and told her how to kill it. Squares pinpointed its weak spots and targeted areas that were exposed at that moment. It then told her where she was and gave her the whole blueprints for Olympus—everything—but without covering her eyesight. She could still see the hydra thrashing around, Piper helping Jason to his feet, Percy clambering up its gut, and Thalia still shooting arrows at it.
The glasses then stopped showing her everything. She thought it might've backfired and quit working. But the lines were still there; like a camera focusing in on the hydra. She knew everything about it right now. What was she waiting for? What were her glasses waiting for?
They were waiting for her order.
Annabeth sat up, peaking from behind the dusty stone. She quickly got to her feet and sprinted, snatching her dagger from the ground. She didn't give any orders for she knew that right now she had to weaken her enemy. She ran right up to the giant creature and struck it in its knee.
It wailed in agony, throwing its heads back again.
She stepped back, out of its reach. The glasses showed her its next move: it would spit fire at her. She waited before moving. Then Annabeth jumped back and the fire hit the ground where she once was—making the tile black with soot.
Annabeth smiled. She loved the glasses more and more by the second.
They seemed to know what she was up to because it replayed the weak points, reminding her to hit at the left bottom corner of its stomach, they base of its tail, the middle of its gut—anywhere but the heads. That's how she knew they were right.
So Annabeth went right toward them.
Percy stared at his girlfriend in awe. "How are you doing that?!" he asked.
But Annabeth couldn't hear him. She kept going at it and the hydra was showing the signs she had been hoping for. It stopped thrashing around and began to stumble. Gold ooze trickled from its wounds. The only thing was that it wouldn't die. Annabeth knew that Hercules had chopped off its heads and then burned the stumps so that they couldn't grow back. But they didn't have any fire—Leo was knocked unconscious and there wasn't anything flammable in the room.
"Maybe we don't have to kill it…" Annabeth murmured under her breath. The glasses seemed to struggle to respond. It wasn't sure what she was asking for. "How do I get rid of it without killing it or my friends?" She asked out loud.
The glasses began to work. It detected what was around her without her having to move so it could see. Finally, after some electronically thinking skills, it landed on the giant hole in the ground that Jason had made earlier.
Annabeth blinked. How did she not think of that earlier?! She lightly shook her head like ridding the cobwebs from her skull. Annabeth smiled at the hole in the ground, knowing exactly what to do.
And so did her glasses.
Oh, and another thing that I forgot to put up there: School sucks. Because not just my school itself, but some of the people there just make me want to go crazy. You didn't have to read that. I just had to tell someone before I went insane. But if you did, thank you for listening.
I also want to thank for all the reviewers and followers- you've made my life and story complete. Cheesy, I know; but true. I get excited and happy. So please keep doing so! :)
Have a good Friday/weekend. You deserve it for surviving through the week.