Hey, Everyone!

Okay, so I'm trying out for my school's soccer team this year (the girl's one, anyway...) and I started tryouts yesterday. Today was probably the hardest day so far, because even though I wasn't as nervous as yesterday, I was hungry when I started practice. And then I exercised and burned off all those calories and I got cramps and I felt hollow while playing and it was extremely uncomfortable, and so it was probably the worst day.

Sorry about updating late! Because of tryouts and homework, I'll probably update late next week, too, but I'll still update! I promise!

HAPPY PI DAY! I just thought I'd get that out there...I like math. :)

Enjoy!

Chapter 20

Leo

After Hazel's little pep talk disbanded, Leo continued to lead the ship in which ever direction the pig turned.

The salty mist from the North Atlantic water and fresh salty air made Leo's chest ache for Percy to be laughing by his side.

And he had no idea what Hazel and Frank might be feeling; they'd known Percy longer than he had.

And naturally, thinking of Percy lead to thinking of Annabeth.

And that made Leo's chest hurt even more.

Annabeth was a great friend, and, by the looks of it, a great girlfriend. She didn't deserve the fate she was given.

Neither did Percy.

None of them did.

But, Leo thought with a little but of pride, who else would be good enough to save the world but the seven of us?

Then he remembered Nico, who they were flying off to save along with Percy and Annabeth, and he corrected himself. Eight.

What is it about this kid, Leo thought, that makes him so…monster magnetic? We're always rushing off to save him all time.

"Leo!" Jason called to him. "How close are we?"

"Far," Leo called back. "We have to cross the North Atlantic Sea! That's going to take a few days…at least!"

"And let's not forgot all the monsters we're going to encounter on the way to slow us down," Frank mumbled with fake enthusiasm.

"Yeah," Hazel sighed.

"So, regular human time? It should take two to three days. Demigod time?" Leo told them. "That should be five, maybe six days. It all depends on if the ship gets damaged in a fight."

"Gods, I don't even want to think about that happening," Piper moaned. "It's too much to think about already-Percy, Annabeth, Nico, the Doors, the world, Gaea, the giants-to have to add the possibly of the boat failing over the middle of the ocean and all of us drowning in the water."

"Wow," Hazel said. "Way to stay optimistic, Piper."

"Not having the best day," Piper shot back.

"Cool it, guys," Frank started, and that's when Leo zoned out and decided to pay attention to the steering wheel and the squealing pig.

Wait. The pig hadn't been squealing for hours. Why had it started now?

There were suddenly flashing lights on the hull, and on the radar, a bright red shape was appearing over and over, closer and closer.

"Um, guys!" Leo shouted. "Monster approaching! Get your swords! This is going to be a seriously bumpy ride!"

"If it's more of those pigs, I swear to the gods," Jason muttered, and he started calling out orders to be fulfilled by the crew; "cover the left flank!" or "Keep the cannons loaded!" and even, "Leo! Keep the ship steady!"

He's not Percy, Leo thought, annoyed. Why his he trying to act like him?

The pig started flapping around in circles like it was trying to dodge something.

"Someone, calm the pig down!" Leo shouted. "He's getting in the way!"

"We can't, Leo, we're kind of busy!" Piper shouted.

There was a loud hissing sound, like snakes, only with a more feminine touch to it, when Leo looked up to check on the pig to see the upper body of a woman and a lower body of a snake trying to attack the pig.

"No!" Leo cried. "Someone, save the pig! He's our only chance!"

Jason lunged off the deck and took to the sky. When the snake woman turned, Leo saw pale gray wings attached to her back, flapping tranquilly.

At first, Leo thought it was an Echidna, but now, with the wings, Leo couldn't be so sure.

Jason lunged at the creature, and she parried with her talon-like nails and hissed.

Leo took a closer look at the creature, trying to analyze it.

He felt a little like Annabeth, and the made him smile.

He took a look at her face, and her head, and when he came to her neck, he saw…gills?

He continued to investigate her, when he realized the tip of her tail wasn't a snake tail at all; it was a fish fin.

"What the…" Leo whispered. He was pretty sure there wasn't any monster from Greek mythology that looked like that.

Leo's attention returned to the battle before him.

The woman-like creature had moved closer to Festus and closer to the pig, while dodging swings and blows from Jason.

Leo looked up and noticed Hazel, climbing on top of Festus's head.

She was poised right above the woman-snake-winged-fish thing now, and she raised her sword over her head dramatically.

But then, something else started to bleep on the radar, and Leo looked down to see another red mark coming in close pursuit.

He looked up in time to see another woman-snake hooking around to strike Hazel from the side.

Panicked, Leo shouted, "Hazel, look out! Left!"

Hazel looked over just in time to throw herself backward, falling on her back on Festus's head, and the creature's out stretched, clawed fingers fly by, along with the creature herself.

Hazel swings her sword as quickly as she can, and she cuts off the fish tail of the snake-fish-flying woman.

She shrieked a high-pitched cry and nearly fell out of the sky.

The other one fighting Jason started to wail in unison, and Hazel and Jason had to cover their ears.

Leo cringed and ducked to try to hide himself from the sound waves, and it seemed to work.

If only a little bit.

When the shrill voices of the weird women/creatures stopped, Leo stood back up.

Frank had climbed up Festus and was now holding a seemingly unconscious Hazel in his arms, looking around in anger and panic.

The beasts were circling them, taking every chance they got to attack, and Frank was doing well at holding them off, but Leo knew they needed to get away.

Leo looked around for Jason, wondering why he wasn't helping, when Leo saw he was fighting off three more of the vermin, surrounded himself.

The now tail-less creature lunged at Hazel, but Frank nearly stabbed her and she backed away, her large wings continuing to flap.

And Leo realized what he needed to do to save his friends.

He pulled a hammer from his tool belt (his now preferred weapon of choice) and he crept up slowly toward Hazel and Frank.

He lit his free hand with an open flame and waited by the back of Festus's head, crouching low, and waiting for one of the things to circle toward him.

And the tail-less one was first.

Leo jumped up and shot fire at her wings.

The wings lit like paper, and the woman shrieked and spiraled out of the sky and down to the ocean below.

The other wailed uncontrollably, louder than before, and lunged at Leo.

It turned into a full battle on the top of Festus's bronze head, and as Leo swung his hammer and bashed the woman's head, he saw Frank and Hazel slipping back onto the safety of the ship.

When she flew to him again, claw-like hands outstretched, Leo met her with a blast of fire to the face that left her shrieking and trying to fly away.

As soon as her back was turned, Leo shot a couple more balls of fire at her wings, and hers too, burned, and she crashed into the ocean along with the other.

The three around Jason wailed in sorrow for their fallen friend, and Jason cringed and covered his ears.

He fell a little lower in the sky and flew toward Leo.

"I don't know how much longer I can hold out on my own," Jason told him, a little worried.

"Don't worry, I have your back," Leo promised.

Jason nodded. "Only problem: you can't fight in the sky."

"Lead them over here," Leo reassured him, "and I can do just fine."

Jason nodded, smiled, and took back off toward the freaky snake-women, and he taunted them toward Festus's head.

Leo looked down to check on the pig, their guide, and found it lying in Festus's open mouth, seemingly unconscious.

Leo prayed to the gods that he was only unconscious, hopefully from the high frequency of the screams and wails from the snake-flying-fish-women.

Once they were in Leo's range, he pelted one with continuous balls of fire until he was able to hit the wings and send them spiraling into the ocean.

He cringed every time the remaining beasts made a sound, and he was happy to dispose of them quickly.

Leo caught one of the women with a fire ball to the tail and the bottoms of her wings, and she went shrieking out of control down under the ship and out of sight.

Jason, finally catching onto Leo's idea, cut one wing clean off the last one, and she fell out of view and into the water.

Leo climbed off onto the deck, and Piper ran to him and said, "Frank took Hazel to her cabin. She's in really bad shape."

"Thanks," Leo huffed, taking really deep breaths, nearly wheezing. "Would you do me a favor and go check on the pig? See if it's still breathing?"

Piper nodded. "Where is it?"

"Lying in Festus's mouth."

"Great," Piper sighed, and she ran off.

There was a sudden loud ripping noise, like metal being torn off metal, and the boat shook.

No! Leo thought, desperate and angry. We killed off everyone of those things!

Jason flew under the ship, and there was a loud, high-pitched cry and Jason flew onto the deck, exhausted, breathing heavily.

"She ripped…" Jason took a few more loud breaths. "She ripped…a huge hole…through the bottom of the boat. Straight through the metal."

Leo screamed some unkind words as the ship slowly began to lose altitude.

They were going to crash into the ocean and drown, just like Piper had said they would.

He ran to his control panel as more lights started flashing, and he checked a map to see if there were any islands or anything anywhere nearby.

And then he saw the small island of Angra Do Heroismo.

"Look out, everyone!" Leo shouted as he grabbed his Wii remote and nunchuck. "It's going to be a rough landing."

Leo maneuvered the ship forward, and with a sudden explosion from below deck, the ship sputtered to death and they shot down in the sky.

Leo only hoped he'd gotten them far enough to land them on the island.

I thought it was time for a little action and suspence, didn't you?

Sorry I kepy you waiting for that so long, I was planning on writing something else when this fight came to my head and I was like "BOO-YEAH!" and I wrote it.

TA-DA! Happy Pi Day! I hope you have lots of pie!

Thanks for Reading!