XXVII

Frank

Frank felt like the gods wouldn't be able to help them on this one.

At the very peak of the mountain, there was the biggest group of giants he had ever seen.

There were large giants, tiny giants, giants with goat heads, fat giants, thin giants, short giants and tall giants. There were so many that Carter sucked in a breath. So did everyone else.

In the middle of the congregation, a giant rock spire jutted up from the ground, going a few meters up every minute or so. Every time it did that, a ring of blue-green light shot outwards, across the sky.

"It's impossible. There's no way we can defeat them." Carter said, trembling slightly. The noise was so loud that there really was no need for whispering.

Leo muttered something like, "Stupid…Eusebeia…Helped."

Carter leaned in closer towards Percy and whispered something in his ear. Percy nodded grimly, and Carter vanished into thin air.

"Where did he go?" Annabeth leaned in.

"To get a friend." Percy replied. Just as he said that, Carter was walking up the hill behind them, holding the hand of an African-American guy who was about his age.

"Hey." Carter said, walking up to them. "This is Walt."

"Hi." He said. "So, what's the issue?" he walked up the hill and crouched down to avoid getting spotted, and peered over the edge. Jason looked at Percy strangely, but didn't question him.

Walt whispered something to Carter, who nodded and whispered to Percy. He nodded and stood up.

"So, guys," he asked. "Does anyone have an idea of what's going on here? Like, why is that spire going up? And what's with the rings?"

Naturally, Annabeth replied. "The spire? It's going up every so often because it's trying to get up higher."

"Where?" Percy asked.

"There." Annabeth pointed upwards, at the huge cloud that was floating over the mountain. Frank could see flashes of blue, yellow and red light flashing inside it.

Percy sucked in a breath. "It's Mount Olympus. The original."

"I think that Gaia is trying to impale it with the spire. If the spire does that, then the roots of civilization as we know it will be destroyed. We'll cease to exist. If it happens, then Gaia is going to have an easy awakening. No gods, no heroes, just her and her children to rule over humans who would be back to the stone ages."

Jason sucked in a breath. "I'd much rather prefer to have existed."

"Then we need to destroy the spire. If Gaia slumbers once more, then the spire will stop growing. Destroying it only gives us extra time."

"But how are we going to do that?" Hazel asked. "There must be at least 20, 25 giants up there."

"And also, what's the deal with the rings?" Leo asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think that it's a natural reaction between the Earth and the Sky. Gaia and Uranus- they don't fit in the same space. The rings are a result of that." Annabeth replied. "Reaction."

"Hey." Percy said. "I think I have a plan…"

Percy's plan was quite vague. Apparently, Carter and Walt were going to lead the charge while everyone else tried to sneak behind the lines to get to the middle.

"But what are Carter and Walt going to do?" Piper asked.

"Well, I need to show you something first." Percy said. His expression suddenly turned slightly pained. "Erm, Walt, if you don't mind…" he turned away slightly, looking at Annabeth's face.

Nico di Angelo stepped out of Walt's body.

Two things. First, it wasn't really Nico, because he was way better looking than Nico. Second of all, he didn't really step out, he sort of floated out of Walt's body and solidified.

The girls' reactions really didn't add anything better.

Piper squeaked so loudly Frank was sure the giants could hear her. Hazel's eyes were bulging out of her eyeballs. In fact, Annabeth was the only one who was barely keeping her cool around the newcomer.

"So, yeah." The guy said. He was around their age- 16 or so. He had an aura of death about him, wore a black jacket, had pale olive skin, dark hair, brown eyes, and an awfully uncomfortable expression. He could have easily passed for Nico if he wasn't so good looking. "I'm Anubis. Just go sneak in when it happens."

"When… what happens?" Frank asked. He was getting seriously confused, racking his memory to see if he had missed anything important. But he got nothing.

"Oh, you'll see." Percy said. Walt, Anubis and Carter all crawled to the edge of the cliff. After a second, they ran right into the crowd of giants.

Frank was expecting some kind of demigod magic. Perhaps the newcomer (whose name he didn't know yet) was some sort of son of Hades. Maybe he would do some rock throwing or something.

He was not expecting giant holograms.

As Carter and Walt ran, their bodies were enveloped by a shimmering blue light and slowly grew into the shapes of large humans… with animal heads. Frank slowly edged back, and Jason and Piper cowered. Meanwhile, Percy was readying his sword for battle, swinging it like he did on numerous occasions.

"Any second now…" he muttered.

Anubis merged into Walt's hologram, which was still growing taller. When it did finally stop, it was over 30 feet tall. Carter was no different. However, his hologram was holding two really weird things in its hands and had a bird for a head, while Carter was holding a weird, curved sword, and had a regular head.

Walt's hologram thing wasn't holding anything, but had the head of a dog-like creature Frank thought he should know.

Annabeth gasped. "Anubis…" she muttered, almost to herself. She looked up at Percy with a look. That look that Frank had seen quite a lot of times. The look of someone's definition of reality changing forever. "Seriously, though?"

Percy nodded. Then, they burst out laughing.

"Hey!" Carter yelled. Whatever he did, the hologram did. He now stood in front of the giants, brandishing the weird things in his hands.

As soon as the giants saw them, they quavered in fear. A tall giant- probably at least 40 feet- stepped out of the crowd.

"I am Gration!" he boomed. "Fear me!" Suddenly, the sky went dark. "I was born to be the anti-Artemis! I can take away your light in an instant!"

In response, Walt put out his hand and touched the Giant once. He screamed. In his place, all that was left was a pile of ashes and dust. The shadow disappeared from the moon, and light returned to the sky.

"I think we should go." Percy muttered. "NOW!"

They all charged out, running straight towards the spire. Luckily, Walt and Carter were keeping them distracted. As soon as they got there, Leo immediately set fire to his hands and pressed them against the rock. "It's not working!" he yelled, panicking.

Frank looked up- and his blood ran cold. The spire hadn't been that high up before, had it? But now, it looked like it was only a few meters away from reaching Mount Olympus. "Hey, guys!" he yelled, pointing up.

Annabeth looked up and her mouth dropped. "We have to hurry. But how…" she thought for a moment. "It should be weaker at the top! Jason, you have to fly up there. Bring someone with you as well, just in case. We'll hold the giants off if it comes to that."

Jason looked around. "I pick…"

He pointed at the person who was right next to Frank.

"Leo." Jason grabbed his waist and shot up so fast he sent up a wave of dust.

Meanwhile, Piper was looking behind them. "Hey, guys…" she muttered, pointing. Frank turned around and saw twenty or so giants walking over to them, wielding sharp, pointy weapons.

"Oh, boy."

And they jumped into battle.