'That's a lot of monsters…' I mumble as I watch the line-up of monsters marching down the North Capitol St. NW. From the earth monsters that I saw back at camp to Cyclopes, they're a merry bunch group. Hundreds of them.

The scout group consists of me, Thalia, and somehow Nathan. The guy made a pretty good argument why he should be with us here even though I wasn't really listening when he made it to Thalia. Bottom point is, it was decided that it's best that he should come with us.

We're lying down with our front body kissing the floor on the rooftop of a hotel building in between North Capitol and McCollough CT. The sun has long set and now darkness curtains the sky. It's not going to be long until sunrise. No stars, but the moon is full. The night breeze is enjoyable, and there's not a single loud noise around, except the marching of the monsters and the occasional exploding cars.

We watch the march of the monsters, they almost look like a Halloween parade but they use torches instead of colorful lightings and real scales instead of costumes. They don't happen to spread out candies and rainbow glitters all around too, more like fire and explosions for anything that gets in their way.

'Let's see… Empousas, check. Telekhines, check. Harpies, check.' Nathan grins happily like he's crossing a list of things to do and that he has accomplished something. I'm a bit confused as to why he's so happy, I mean I get that he's a son of Poseidon and all of that, and that this is in a weird way is his army, but if he was telling the truth, he would die if we lost this battle. Looking at how much they've outnumbered us, I'd say we have a slim chance of making it out of this alive.

Great, Matt. That's what you need right now, another heart-warming speech about how badly you're going to lose and die. I grumble in my thoughts.

Thalia stiffens; her face is filled with a mixture of emotions. Fear, anger, maybe even excitement. A strange combination of emotions, I know. She kinda likes brawling.

'So, you know them better than I do. What's the weak link of this army?' Thalia asks Nathan.

'Weak link?' Nathan looks at Thalia with an expression that kinda says: Dude, you're kidding me, right? 'I have no idea what kind of weak link does this army possess since I never got the chance to actually spend time with them. There was no introduction or bon fire playtime or any other army to ravage with this army. How should I know how they fight?' Nathan says it like it's the most obvious thing in this world. 'If there's one thing that I know though, this is not all of them. I don't know where the rest are, but they're probably with my brother.'

Thalia grunts, 'Some help you are, Hail.'

Nathan smirks, 'Hey, you called me Hail. Aww, does this mean we're BFF already?'

'I should impale you with my spear right now.' Thalia's eyes light up like sparks of electricity. Man, she's scary when she does that. Thalia looks grimly to the army of monsters again, 'Let's just get back to Malcolm and we'll come up with a strategy later.'

'Good idea, can we get some cheeseburgers on the way home?' I say, trying to cheer her up even just a slightest bit.

Thalia sighs, 'You know, you're very similar to him.' Thalia points back to Nathan.

'Take that back, I'm nothing like him! I'm better looking.' Nathan smirks.

'That's still up for discussion, or not, we all know that I'm the better looking one.' I reply back to his comment.

'I take everything back, in a different situation, you guys can be twins. Actually, in whichever situation that we're in, you two are twins.' Thalia says.

'I don't look like scar-body here.' He mocks.

'And I don't look like a girl.' I say back.

Nathan laughs with amusement. 'I like you, Matt. You're funny, and might be an even match to me in a thousand years.'

I smirk, 'True, a thousand years should be enough for you to catch up to me.'

Thalia rolls her eyes, 'Are we done with deciding who's manlier than who? Because I would like to get back to our friends and warn them about the thousand monsters that are coming their way.'

Three loud bams arrive right behind us. We look back slowly, and dust are scattering around clouding whatever that has just arrived. The ground beneath them cracks, they're heavy, that much is certain. First are lions' head, three to be exact. Then the three bodies, goats' body. Finally, the diamondback snake-headed tail for each body.

'Chimeras.' Nathan stands up quickly. He grabs his sword and shield that are strapped to his back and flashes them to the monsters.

Thalia and I follow, drawing our weapons and readying ourselves for the upcoming attack.

Just when I thought that these three are the only things that I have to worry about, from right behind the chimeras, another being landed, this one is at least thrice the noise that the chimeras created when they landed. Oh joy, this one is going to be a lot bigger and heavier.

From the dusts, a pair of glistening crimson eyes light up like decorations on a Christmas tree. The thing waves his hammer, dispersing the dusts that scattered around it. Its bull's head is the first thing that we see after its hammer.

I've never seen the creature before in my life but even I know what it is, it's pretty obvious. A large Minotaur appears holding a giant hammer and looking really really angry.

'Running is not an option, is it?' I ask even though I already know the answer.

We're on the rooftop of a nine stories building, the door is right behind the monsters and I'm pretty sure that even if we can make it there, we won't be arriving with just small wounds. This entire rooftop is a killbox.

'Not unless you can fly.' Thalia mutters.

'Nathan laughs in ecstasy, 'Cheer up you two! 'Tis a good day to die!' Nathan leaps to the monsters without waiting for us. Heck, he probably didn't even think twice about leaping ahead.

'Oh great! We have crazy with us!' I grumble in frustration. I just realized that his bravado, careless attitude that I got to know in just the past couple of hours, he's just as reckless as he is crazy. Figuring his personality wasn't hard, accepting that he's crazy, now that's a different story.

Nathan trades blows with the chimeras. He would swing his sword, and the chimeras would leap back and forth, dodging Nathan's attack and try to counter back. When the chimeras strike whether they breathe fire or with their super scary diamondback snake tails, Nathan would put up his shield and blocks the chimeras' attack.

Thalia leaps in to join the battle, but the moment she gets the chimeras' attention, Nathan charges to the Minotaur, leaving Thalia behind with the chimeras.

I jump onto one of the chimeras while its attention is still on Thalia, riding its goat body, stabbing it multiple times before it disintegrates into dusts. Thalia waves her spear lightly like just waving a simple ordinary stick. Man, she's strong, probably can choke the living out of me. It feels weird that I actually, might, probably, want to see that happen.

Keep making jokes, Grey. Keep making jokes and it'll happen. Somehow I can imagine Thalia's voice, saying that to me. The only problem with that is I would end up dead.

Thalia uses her spear as a pole and swings around it like a dancer, kicking a chimera with all her might. The chimera stumbles back, grunting in the process. The chimera has Thalia's boot print on its face, it growls louder and grows angrier.

The other chimera turns its attention to me, with his eyes full of bloodlust and his mouth full of fangs that look like rotten sharpened knives. Drools leaked out of the chimera's mouth, and the chimera keeps licking his mouth like it just found a meal after three days being hungry.

Oh look, an easy meal. It probably thought to himself.

The chimera flings himself unto me, it definitely thinks that I'm an easy prey since that was done without any thinking. I've heard that chimeras have human intelligence, but these creatures seem weird to me, they look like rabid animals without any actual intelligence. Like dogs that haven't been fed in days.

I duck quickly and swing my blade vertically while the chimera flies above me. My blade scratches the bottom of his belly just slightly, not enough to cause any good damage, but it definitely hurt.

The chimera crashes down, the ground beneath it cracks a bit. It stands up again, now it looks really really angry. Kinda look like Thalia before, but somehow Thalia still seemed scarier than the chimera right now.

The chimera begins to circle me, and I circle back. The beast and I are face to face while walking in a circle, I grip my sword tightly. Real life combat is so different from training, I can feel the pressure of life and death. The cold touch of the reaper on my face, the chill on my spine, yet I feel the burning sensation on my body, sweats keep falling down from my face. I take a calm deep breath while still paying a close attention to the chimera.

The chimera readies itself again. It springs unto me with jaws full of drool and dreadful breath. It lands onto me and knocks me off balance. I fall to the ground with the beast on me and my sword knocked off of my hand.

Its jaws full of fangs reach out to me, trying to take a bite. I hold his head back off with both my hands. The creature is strong, it's taking everything out of me just to keep his jaws away from me. The rotten stench is potent, in a different situation, his breath is enough to make me puke.

At least this can't possibly be worse.

I was wrong. The diamondback snake-tail slithers its way right above the head. The snake open its mouth, poison falls off from its two distinct greenish fangs.

I scan the area around quickly, looking for my sword. My sword is just a couple of inches away from my hand, it's so close yet it seems so far. I start to panic a bit, and I have to think quickly or else I'm going to die.

'Matt! Hang on!' Thalia yells out. I can hear her spear clashes with something, she's still fighting the other chimera.

I can't hang on that long, I would be dead by the time she finishes her opponent. No, this is something that I have to finish by myself.

Think, Grey, think quickly before the snake or the lion eats you.

I can't think of anything that quick, but I know what I can do that might just work. I shove the head as hard as I can, and I swing my fist, connecting it to the lion's cheek. My strength, that's what I have. The head staggers back but the body remains unmoving and the snake tail remains unflinching. It doesn't matter, it's enough. I grab my sword and when the snake tail pounces, I slice off the snake's neck.

The chimera stumbles back, more importantly, it stumbles off of me. I get up quickly and while it's still in a dazed state, I sink my blade through the creature's mouth, through the fangs and into the throat. The chimera disintegrates into dusts.

Now, while still trying to catch my breath, I scan the area around for Thalia. Her spear is buried deep in the roof, but the person herself is missing from sight. Around a dozen steps away from the spear is Thalia with her dual daggers drawn, and the chimera with scratches all over it.

Thalia throws one of her daggers and it hits the chimera right in its forehead, she dashes right to the chimera and uses the other dagger to stab the chimera from under its jaws. Thalia escapes back and she calls upon a thunder to strike down the chimera, vaporizing it into dusts. Talk about serious overkill.

All the chimeras are now dead, so the Minotaur is all that's left.

The sound of angry stomping hoofs and bellowing reach out probably even to down below to the very corner of the street. The hammer's noise, crashing down, breaking the ground beneath it, almost shattering.

I look to Nathan, enjoying himself as he sways to every direction, dodging the Minotaur's attack. He looks like he's dancing, the weird and somehow kinda cool one. His expression is like telling us that he's having the best time in the world right now.

He's really insane. I mumble in my thoughts.

Every attack that Nathan dodges, he misses it by a hair. If he's just a little bit off, the Minotaur is going to swat him like a fly. Yet, his face is telling me that there's a chance he's doing it on purpose.

Is it bad for me to actually hope that one of the hammer's strikes would hit him in the face? Yeah, it probably is. It's probably because I imagine that it would be like one of those comedy films where when the Minotaur hit him in the face, it would probably only daze Nathan. Of course that split second imagination was shattered with the realization that if it actually hits, Nathan is dead.

The Minotaur makes a huge swing, dropping the hammer down but not before Nathan sways to the right and the hammer crashes down, missing Nathan, and making a hole on the ground.

Nathan lunges to the Minotaur and bashes its head with his shield. The shield creates a loud ringing noise, it's vibrating like crazy but Nathan is unaffected. The Minotaur on the other hand, staggers back, in a dazed and confused state while holding its head with its left hand while its right is still wielding the large iron hammer.

Nathan proceeds to bury his sword deep between the Minotaur's chest. The Minotaur wails in pain, that attack should have killed it, but the Minotaur lives and it swings its hammer again. Even Nathan looks shocked at that split second.

Something flies through the air right next to my head and strikes the Minotaur in the head, disintegrating it into dusts. Thalia's spear is now buried in the yellow dusts that used to be the Minotaur.

Behind me, Thalia looks satisfied with a huge wide smirk on her face. Her throw was wickedly awesome, it was fast, strong, and more importantly, accurate. Kinda glad that it didn't go through my head to reach the Minotaur's.

'Thanks, sky princess.' Nathan says with a short breath.

'You're welcome, Hail.' Thalia replies, she retrieves her spear.

The bellowing of the monsters on the streets get louder, especially the wailings of the harpies on the sky.

'We better get a move now, we've caused a lot of mess.' Nathan suggests. He straps his shield and sword on his back.

'Seconded.' I say before I sprint to the door.

Somehow, three amazingly gorgeous girls drop right in front of the door, halting me from using it. I look at their smooth tall legs and beautiful face. They're wearing short skirt and a tank top, each in different bright color.

I fix my hair quickly, 'Hello there, ladies.'

The three girls smile enchantingly to me. Before I can do anything else, Nathan grabs my shoulder and holds me back.

'Whoa there, Casanova. Unless you want to make out with empousas, I suggest we run. Now!'

'Those are empousas?' I mutter.

Nathan runs to the ledge of the rooftop with me and Thalia following him from behind.

Okay, so that might not have been the best idea since I called him crazy, and insane not so long ago. The problem is, I didn't even remember it myself until he jumped over the black iron railing, freefalling seven stories below.

Thalia and I hit the quick brake and lean over the railing, looking down at the ground and kinda waiting for that sound that bodies make when they splat down on the ground.

Note to self: Stop watching too much Crime series.

The sound never came and Nathan is already halfway down, holding on to a white silk linen rope, while making his way down quickly.

I finally notice the rope's end is tied up to a hook that is locked on the railing. Nathan must have hooked it up when he jumped over.

'You guys are waiting for an invitation or what!?' Nathan yells out.

'Have I told you how insane he is?' I mutter.

'Yes, once. And then your face said it a couple more times.'

Thalia jumps over the railing and climbs down the rope. I glance back, the empousas are strangely in no hurry to catch us. They're merely strolling to our direction.

That can't be good, when monsters are relaxing like that when the good guys are trying to escape, mostly it's because it's a trap or there's something else waiting for the good guys at the end of the road. I've watched too many films to think otherwise.

Still, I don't want to spend a moment longer than I have to on this rooftop.

I follow Thalia and climb down the rope as fast as I can. Once we hit the ground, we sprint back to the main road, following the sidewalk.

We can hear monsters wailing and bellowing not far behind us. Glancing back at the street, the monsters are marching down in our way. Hellhounds running and stomping in our direction, seriously though, where did they come from? The harpies are wailing and flying to us. In a matter of minutes they'll catch us.

'How far is it again back to the white house?' I ask while still running with Nathan and Thalia for our lives.

'Too far.' Nathan mutters. He takes a quick scan of the area. 'Follow me.' He says as if he just spotted something that piques his interest greatly.

He dashes to a nearby parked blue Volvo sedan on the side of the street on his left. He slides over the hood of the car and breaks the glass window. He slithers his hand through the broken window and unlocks the door. He enters the car in a hurry and starts ransacking the place while we still just stand there watching him, slightly confused of what to do.

Nathan realizes that we're still just standing still, he sighs and looks at us in frustration. He opens the glass window of the passenger's seat. 'Well? Are you two waiting for an invitation or just waiting for the monsters to eat us?'

'Oh, right.' I say. Thalia and I enter the car in a hurry. I get into the passenger's seat, and Thalia gets into the back.

'We agreed not to use anything loud!' Thalia yells.

'I'm sorry, apparently our location is still unknown the monsters behind us!' Nathan replies in annoyance.

Nathan is still busy looking for something. He folds down the sun visor right above the steering wheel, the car's key drop down onto his lap.

'Found it!' Nathan yelps in excitement.

'Interesting choice for a vehicle.' I murmur.

'It was either this or a Ferrari, and I don't see any Ferrari around.'

My eyes widen, 'Why a Ferrari or a Volvo?'

'I've only driven two cars before, thought it would be easier to drive if I pick a car that the control would be familiar.' He sticks the key in and starts the engine.

I gulp, 'You do know how to drive, right?'

'Of course I do! What kind of a question is that!?' He says gleefully. 'I've driven like four or five times before.'

Thalia groans, 'By the gods! Can't anyone else drive!?' She asks the room but it's more directed to me.

'Hey, don't look at me, I never got the chance to learn how to drive. Never even held a steering wheel in my life before!' I admit.

Something crashed down suddenly right on the trunk, the car shakes violently. All three of us glance back and spot a big chunk of rock, the size of a watermelon, just found its way into the trunk of the car.

The monsters are already close, the hellhounds and the harpies are just a dozen steps away behind us.

'Go! Now!' Thalia orders.

Nathan straps on his seatbelt, he grins gleefully. 'Safety first.'

I buckle up and Thalia holds onto her chair.

Nathan punches the gas, and the car sprints out of there. The sudden jolt forces us back against our chair. Nathan shifts the gear, going even faster. The car is kinda shaky, the shaky kinda way that can tell us that the car is jolting left and right, up and down. It's a lot like riding a roller coaster, the difference is, this one is operated by a maniac that probably knows jack squat about driving.

Thalia yells out curses in ancient greek everytime the car makes a slight or a long jump, which is once every fifteen seconds. He's driving like one of those daredevil racing film, just a lot more reckless, and a lot more amateurish. It doesn't bring any comfort remembering those stupid films.

The car makes a loud screeching noise when it takes a sharp turn to the left, it slams us right to the door. Nathan looks joyful, his eyes never left the road. My side of the car slams against some other cars, but Nathan keeps going, and the friction between the cars create a disturbing loud noise.

The insurance company would have a lot of clients once this is all over.

Nathan turns the wheel again, avoiding the cars now, but a little bit too much that we smash through a fire hydrant.

I grab the assist handle right above the door like my life is depended on it. Actually to be fair, I think my life does depend on it. 'Holy Morpheus! If I make it out of here alive, I promise to take more nap and stop being more hyperactive!' I pray loudly to the god of sleep, my father.

'How is you taking more naps would please Morpheus!?' Thalia yells out in frustration.

'He's the god of sleep! If I sleep more it'll please him!' I reply.

'He's the god of dreams, you ignorant buffoon!'

I let out a small: 'Oh…'

A thud appears on top of the car, followed by the sounds of claws sinking into the roof of the car. The claws are tearing up the roof, slowly but surely.

'Harpies!' Nathan yells out.

Two heavy objects are slamming their bodies to each side of our car. The car stumbles, still going but it won't be able to take much more slamming.

'Hellhounds!' I say.

On my right is a black-furred hellhound, and there's another same colored hellhound on Nathan's side. Both creatures are eager to eat us up.

'We have more companies behind us!' Nathan says as he looks at the rear-side mirror.

He's right. There are at least a dozen other hellhounds and two dozen more harpies following us.

He looks at us with disbelief, 'Less freeze-freeze and more stab-stab!' Nathan uses his right hand to demonstrate thrusting our weapon. It would have been funny if we're not in grave danger.

Thalia drives her spear through the roof of the car. The harpy above us wails in pain, my guess is that Thalia's spear found its way to the harpy.

The window on my side is already cracked and the door is crooked, almost torn off from all the smashing that the hellhounds did. Can't open it, have to smash it open. I put all my strength behind my leg and kick the door. It budges but not enough. I take a deep breath and kick the door once more, it flung open.

I jab the hellhound on my side a couple of times, keeping it away from us.

'Go faster!' I order Nathan while still jabbing.

'There's no faster! Nothing left on the gas pedal to press anymore!' Nathan screams in frustration.

A really ugly and hairy hand goes through the roof of the car, the claws missed me by two inches. Everything goes silent for a couple of seconds. The harpy above pull its hand back out. I look through an arm-sized hole right above me, the harpy sink its claws into the roof and tears the roof open.

The harpy leans forward and shrieks, I counter it back with the most girlish scream I can manage.

An arrow flies through the air and shoots the harpy on the chest. The harpy disintegrates into yellow dusts that are scattered around by the wind.

'Hunters!' Thalia smiles in relief as she yelps out that word.

On our right, above the "Charlie Palmer Steak DC" restaurant, dozens of hunters are standing there with their bows drawn.

Checkpoint! I mutter in relief.

They let out a volley of arrows, raining down upon the harpies and the hellhounds behind us.

Clarisse charges with the ground force and overrun the two hellhounds beside us while creating a safe passage for us to go through. Nathan goes through smoothly, and more importantly, he didn't hit anyone with a car.

Nathan hit a sudden brake and we all jolt forward.

'Thank you for travelling with Nathan's speed ground travel. We hope you enjoy your travel and wish to see you all again.' He says, mimicking a voice that you usually hear in the airplane when you've reached your destination.

'Never again…' I mumble with a heavy breath.

'Never…' Thalia agrees. She exits the car, shakily, her legs are trembling.

My legs on the other hand feel numb, too much excitement for one day, or rather, one night. I just want to curl up in my bed and sleep.

I glance behind, the monsters are losing, but I know the creatures chasing us are just small portion of the real deal. They're just the small hunting party.

I look over to the horizon, lights start to come out from there, dawn is upon us, the sun is going to rise any minute now. I didn't even realize the passing time.

Nathan exits the door, he walks up to Thalia and puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder with a teasing grin.

Another hunter runs to us, to Thalia to be exact. I wouldn't mind for her to actually run to me. The thought of that makes me smirk.

'Thalia! I have news for you.' The hunter says.

'Don't keep us waiting then.' Nathan blurts.

The hunter glances at Nathan, but decides to ignore him. 'Someone just showed up, and she's one of the demigods from the camp. She has news for you but she refuses to come with us, she said that she'll be waiting for you in the white house.'

'A demigod? Who is it?' Thalia asks.

'Annabeth Chase.'