XX

Nico

Nico gaped at the statue. It was covered in ashes and dust, and it was so big that it stretched across the entire cave.

The Cyclopes lumbered towards their direction. They ducked behind a stone column.

"-Nearly finished." The Cyclopes were talking among themselves. "We just need to get the metals from the Athena Parthenos, and the great weapon is ours!"

Another voice snickered. "They won't know what hit them."

Nico peeked around the corner. The Cyclopes were walking along the walls, chatting in deep, rumbling voices like they were having a nice, casual chat on a sunny afternoon day, planning for the ultimate demise of the Olympians.

The biggest Cyclops snickered. "This weapon is going to be even more powerful than Kronos' scythe! What are the gods going to do now?" they both laughed and bumped their fists.

They didn't notice the three people hiding behind the columns, luckily, and they lumbered past them. Nico let out his breath.

Reyna whispered, "That weapon- I don't want to know what they're trying to make, but even from here, I can sense something very dangerous and powerful. I don't want to know what's in the lava."

"But how about the Athena Parthenos?" Coach Hedge asked. "They're going to lower that statue into the lava, melt it, and it's over. The Greeks and Romans have basically got no chance of uniting in any way if that happens."

"Hey, how did they even come up with this?" a Cyclops carrying a giant block of stone on his back asked, nudging the one who was tilting a bucket of lava into the pit.

"Oh, they managed to get the shadow of Zeus." The other one snickered. He took a giant statue of Zeus from a table. It was pitch-black. "They just need to drop this into the lava, then the reaction from the statue is all we need."

A giant Cyclops with chains lumbered down another set of stairs- probably the master. He grumbled, "You got the execration, right?"

The Cyclops snickered. "We've got the man we need for that."

Master Cyclops shuddered. "I don't like that guy. He gives me the creeps. But I guess so. Are we set up?"

"Yes, sir! We're pretty much set."

Suddenly, the temperature in the room seemed to drop a couple degrees. Nico looked over his shoulder apprehensively-and nearly screamed at the ghost.

He was pretty much like any old ghost, but that wasn't what Nico was screaming at. It was his outfit. He was wearing a pink shirt. Around him as a flurry of pink ribbons. He had pink highlights in his hair, his face had streaks of pink paint on it, and he was holding an iPod playing Pink.

Reyna noticed him, and made a small noise that might have been a cross between a pig snorting and Chiron farting (long story).

He winked jokingly, and put his finger to his lips. He tossed a whistle in front of them, and floated on.

Nico tried to touch it. It was blindingly white, and a little warm. He quickly shoved it in his pocket, and tried to blink the spots out of his eyes. Meanwhile, the Cyclopes had created a circle around the lava pit. The ghost walked forward.

One of the Cyclopes dropped the pitch-black statue into the pit. It sank into the lava, emitting a faint black mist. Meanwhile, the ghost chanted in a language that Nico knew was definitely not Ancient Greek. Darkness started to glow from the pit.

"Release the Statue!" the master Cyclops yelled.

Two Cyclopes took out giant saws. They hefted them up.

Reyna gasped. Coach Hedge closed his eyes shut.

Time seemed to slow down. Nico grabbed the whistle from his pocket. He had no idea what to do, but he decided to go for it. He blew. Hard.

An ear-deafening chanting came out of the other end. The whistle broke. The Cyclopes looked unaffected, but Nico could see what was going on. The ghost was waving his arms, creating a shield around the Cyclopes. They seemed like they couldn't hear what was going on.

The chanting died down. The Cyclopes cut the chains, oblivious to it. The statue fell from the ceiling like a brick.

Nico knew that there was no going back now. If nothing miraculous came out of the sky and saved them, the quest was over. This was it.

He'd known from the moment they'd come into this cavern that trying to stop the Cyclopes would be virtually impossible. But he was now wishing that he'd done something. Now, there was nothing he could do at all.

He closed his eyes, waiting for the splash of metal against lava. But what he heard was totally different.

A giant chunk of the ceiling crashed down. Gravel, dirt, even entire trees, were thrown into the cavern. The shield flickered and disappeared, and a Pegasus flew through the cavern, straight towards the falling statue. It caught the chains in its mouth, and flew away from the lava, carrying it like it was a reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh. It twisted and turned expertly in the air, carefully landing it on the ground.

The Cyclopes hadn't been so lucky. What remained of them was a giant pile of stone and sand.

The horse whinnied and cantered on the spot. Its long, white wings flapped impatiently.

Reyna's jaw dropped. "That's… that's…"

"What?" Coach Hedge yelled. "It's telling us to board it! Duh!"

"No, not that." Reyna said, still shocked. "That Pegasus… it's not just any Pegasus. It's the original."

"How do you know?" Nico asked Reyna.

"Only the original Pegasus flies like that." Reyna answered. She couldn't take her eyes off the horse. Is this a girl thing? Nico wondered. Being totally obsessed with horses?

Suddenly, she turned towards Nico. "Wait. That whistle the ghost-thing gave us-it called this to come to us. How did he get that whistle? He had that thing on speed-dial!"

"Let's worry about that later. We need to get out of here!" Nico yelled. The stone columns that were holding up the ceiling were crumbling. "Get on!" He jumped onto Pegasus and they took off with a jolt, dodging falling boulders. Pegasus somehow managed to fly around all of them, even managing to save the Athena Parthenos. Finally, they burst out of the giant hole the spell had created, and landed safely on the ground.

The Athena Parthenos lay on the ground sideways, like she was lying on a beach towel. The ropes came off, and Pegasus flew away.

Reyna's face fell.

Suddenly, loud noises came from the jungle- probably more monsters, attracted to the power of the statue. By the volume, Nico could safely say that there were probably ten times more than the army that had tried to take Mount Olympus a year ago. "We'd better go before the whole woods tries to kill us!" Nico yelled. "Stand near the statue!"

The scrambled towards it. Nico concentrated. A hole of darkness appeared under them, and they dropped down into it.