Hello!

So, now I've tried to write some real fight-scenes. Hope you'll be satisfied!

Chapter 34 – Helicopter

HAZEL

Hazel was so busy, she barely noticed her boyfriend coming straight form the fire with an arm wrapped around Piper.

The ugly monster had decided to stick its head in between the demigods, and now there was a big fight going on. Coach Hedge had been swinging his baseball bat at the monster's nose, which had made it roar and breathe even more fire, until it slashed a foot and effectively made the satyr stop (well, you can't fight if you're knocked out).

Jason left the fight and ran to Piper's side (very roman, just drop out from a fight, Hazel thought and rolled her eyes), leaving Frank, Nico and Hazel to fight the monster alone.

Piper and Leo recovered pretty fast, though. Piper still looked startled over the fact that she hadn't gotten burn (Hazel didn't really know how that was possible either, but she hadn't time to think about it), but Leo ran to Hazel and the others.

"Howdy, partner." Leo greeted and grinned, which made Hazel lose concentration for a second.

A monster-hand came flying. Hazel jumped and raised her spartha. A moment later, she was lying on the hand with the spartha deeply dug in the skin of the monster. The monster roared with pain and desperately tried to shake Hazel and her weapon off, which was exactly what Hazel had hoped for. Just as the monster raised his hand to its head, she pulled out the spartha and threw it at the monster neck.

"FRANK!" Hazel yelled, just as the monster rose to its feet and roared in pain again. Frank got the message and shot a bunch of arrows right in the chest of it.

With a confused, pained growl, the monster exploded to yellow dust. Hazel fell down to the ground hard on her side.

A sharp pain shot up her arm, and Hazel immediately knew something was wrong. The pain almost blinded her, and her head started to spin.

"Ouch." Was the only thing she managed.

"Hazel!"

Leo ran to her side with the other close behind him. Black spots danced for Hazel's eyes, making their faces look blurry, but she could imagine Leo's frown and eyes full of worry.

"Are you okay?" Nico's voice asked somewhere above Hazel.

"Oh gods." Piper said, and Hazel took it as she had seen her arm. "Oh, Hazel."

"Is it that bad?" Hazel groaned and tried to sit up, just to feel a wave of nausea and pain wash over her and immediately make her fall down again.

"Ambrosia!" Leo suddenly said and snapped his finger. "Anyone has any ambrosia?"

Frank grumbled something and Hazel saw him pull out a few squares of the godly food from a Ziploc bag. He handed them to Leo, who fed her. The pain slowly faded a little and Hazel could see clearer.

"Better?" Leo asked worriedly.

"Yeah." Hazel mumbled. "Yes. Just help me get up, and I'll be fine…"

With a little help, Hazel got up on her feet. Her arm still hurt, sharp bolts of pain shooting through it every now and then, but it felt much better.

Hazel smiled weakly to the others.

After waking Coach Hedge up (it took quite a long time), they continued their journey through the city, following Nico. Leo had an arm around Hazel's waist, ignoring the looks Frank shot them.

Coach Hedge seemed a little ashamed of being unconscious while the other fought the monster, but perked up when he joined Leo, Piper, Hazel and Jason's conversation.

"How is it that you're not burned after running through that fire?" Jason asked and frowned.

Piper looked confused.

"I don't know." She admitted. "Leo just grabbed me and dragged me through the flames. I didn't feel anything; I just saw the fire all around me. A second later, it was over."

They both looked at Leo for answers, but he looked just as puzzled as them.

"I-I don't know either. My fire-immunity protected you too, in some way." Leo looked surprised. "If I can do that by just touching someone, it would make things a whole lot easier if we somehow have to fight in fire."

Coach Hedge snorted.

"You did it unconsciously, right? Then you don't know how to control it yet. Just don't get your hopes up, cupcakes."

Hazel could feel how Leo stiffened. His face fell, so she quickly added:

"But it maybe will help anyway? We'll find a way to control it. It's would be really good if we would all be immune to fire."

She glanced at Leo's face, but he had masked whatever he had been feeling a moment ago. He was biting his lip, his eyes dangerously dark, which made Hazel question if she had made it better or worse.

She leaned in and whispered in his ear:

"What's wrong, Leo?"

Leo opened his mouth, but then stopped and smiled half-heartedly toward her.

"Nothing. Just… Realized something."

He didn't seem to be lying, but not telling her the whole truth either. Hazel decided to not push him, so she dropped it.

You could think the monsters would lay off the demigods (and the satyr), since they were probably walking toward their deaths anyway, but no. After half an hour minutes of running, walking, dodging attacks and hiding behind ruins that once had been houses and successfully avoiding fighting, some stupid monsters decided that the demigods would be a good meal and blocked their way.

Hazel didn't know what they were. They were ugly, big, monsters with six arms and stupid expressions on their faces.

But shadows of recognition flashed over Leo, Jason, Coach Hedge and Piper's faces.

"Gegenees…. Again." Piper muttered.

Leo rolled his eyes.

"Didn't we kill them already?"

"They tasted my bat once, and they shall do it again if they wish so!" Hedge grinned.

Hazel stared at Jason for an explanation.

"The Earthborn." He explained. "Ugly monsters that was born out from the Earth. Pretty fond of Gaea. My namesake fought them on his journey to find the Golden Fleece. Whatever you do, don't mention my name."

"Food! Demigod delicious! We hungry!"

The five Earthborn, all with stupid smirks on their faces, crept closer. Hazel took a better grip around her spartha and saw the other get ready for fight too.

They crashed in to fight. Nico managed to stab one of them in the chest, making it melt to a puddle of clay. Unfortunately, it started to reform a second later. Jason cut one Eartborn's arm off, making it roar angrily and attack with the five arms it had left flying (until the arm reformed too).

Hazel tried to run around them and stab one from behind, but it didn't work. The ogre spotted her before she had the chance to run around it, and stared at her spartha.

"You kill me? You die!" It yelled and lunched forward to attack, but Hazel was faster. She dodged the attack, turned around and cut the ugly monster's head off.

The Earthborn melted, leaving clay all over Hazel's spartha, but before she could enjoy her triumph it reformed in front of her. While she watched, the monster grew back from the puddle of clay on the ground. But before it had the chance to attack, she stabbed it in the chest, and it melted again.

They couldn't go on like this. They wouldn't be able to hold the monsters down forever; they would always reform. She shot a desperate look over her shoulder to see how the others were doing, and they didn't seem to have much luck either.

Coach Hedge was running around and hitting the ogres in random places, making them very annoyed. Jason was trying to hold two back at once, Frank trying to help him by shooting arrows as soon as it threated to hurt Jason. Piper and Nico was battling an Earthborn together, taking turns stabbing it as soon as it tried to reform. The remaining ogre was making its way toward Leo.

Hazel saw in the corner of her eye how Leo pulled out a few things form his toolbelt and started working with them. He mouthed "distract them" to Hazel, so she obeyed.

"I'm Jason!" Hazel said in sheer desperation, remembering Jason's warning about telling the Earthborn his name.

Jason turned to glare at Hazel, but she paid more attention to all the ogres that slowly turned and stared at her.

"You Yay-son?" One of them asked, slightly confused. "You not look like Yay-son."

"Yes, I am Jason. I… I changed my looks." Hazel said helplessly. "I'm still Jason."

The Earthborns expressions turned from confused to angry.

"You Yay-son? Kill Yay-son!"

Just as they started to make their way toward Hazel, she locked eyes with Piper. Somehow, Piper understood.

"No! Wait! She's not Jason, I am!"

The ogres turned away from Hazel and stared at Piper.

"You Yay-son?"

"No! I am!" Nico shouted and waved his hands. "I'm Jason!"

The monsters seemed very confused now. Jason (the real Jason), Frank and Coach Hedge joined them and started yelling that they were Jason too, and the Earthborn looked so confused that Hazel almost felt sorry for them.

Leo had stepped away from the fight and was furiously working on something that looked like a small… What did they call it?... Helicopter. Hazel had no idea about what it could do, but it didn't matter as long as it would help them defeat the stupid monsters.

The ogres started to realize that just one of them could be Jason, but they didn't know who. Hazel was pretty sure they remembered Jason and Piper from before, because they kept throwing suspicious looks at them. Luckily, no one of them had noticed Leo.

"You Yay-son!" One of them said slowly and pointed with all six arms at Jason. "Seen you before."

"No, I'm Jason." Nico insisted.

"I am too!" Coach Hedge yelled.

Suddenly, there was a small pop and Leo's helicopter surred to life. He grinned and yelled:

"EVERYBODY, BACK OFF!"

They did what he said, a little surprised, and watched as the helicopter quickly flew to the sky and stopped just over the group of ogres' heads. The monsters stared at the small thing that was flying above them, and before they could react the helicopter opened a small hatch. Out from the opening, a big, golden net sprouted out and captured all ogres. It happened in the matter of seconds.

The Earthborn was slow to react. They tried hard to rip off the web (that somehow had attached to the ground so they couldn't get out), but it didn't seem to work. Now the helicopter had done its work, it fell down, right at one of the ogres head.

"Ow!" It scoffed unhappily.

"Great job, Leo." Jason said and smiled.

Piper nodded approvingly but didn't say anything. Hazel guessed they were used to Leo building things like this, but she couldn't take her eyes off the golden web.

"How is it they can't rip the web to shreds?" She asked Leo.

Leo grinned.

"Magic. No, seriously, it's some kinda' godly web. My dad, Hephaestus, captured Aphrodite cheating on him with Ares in one of these."

Nico examined the web, looking mildly impressed.

"You found this in your toolbelt?"

Leo shrugged.

"I had a little over from another project… Anyway, we gotta go."

Well, I know it wasn't that good. I'm kinda disappointed with myself, but anyway, I'll try to do a better job with the next chapter. I'll make it longer too ;)

And I realized that the giants were going to the "roots" of the gods, so I guess that would be the mountain Olympos, and currently the demigods are in Athens. But it'll get figured out in the next chapter! :)

For you who like Nico; it will be more about the son of Hades in coming chapters! I like him quite much, actually, and I want him to be included in the story. I'm going to what I do best to characters I like (Leo, for example): TORTURE! ;) Just kidding...?

Review!