XXXI

Frank

(A/N: Well, well, well. The final chapter in the epic fight against the giants. Not the end. Please read and review! Hope you like it!)

Frank stared in shock as another volley of cannonballs embedded themselves in the giants' flesh. This wasn't possible. How had the Argo II made it? Hadn't it been destroyed in the crash?

Judging by the others' expressions, they didn't have a clue either.

Festus blew a column of fire, and the giants all reared back, trying to avoid it. Some of them stumbled back, tumbling down the others like dominoes.

Another volley of flaming cannonballs were shot out of the ballistae, then another, this time of giant, pink, sparkly firecrackers. Giants threw rocks, mud, withering plants, full-grown trees and giant trousers (don't ask), but the ship expertly dodged all of them.

Leo? Frank dimly thought. Only one person knew how to drive the ship that well.

Frank snapped himself out of his stupor. "Quick!" he yelled. "While they're still focused!" He transformed into a Stymphalian Bird and flew straight at the giants, trying his best to peck their eyes out. Yes, it sounds gross, but without their eyes, the giants wouldn't be able to see properly, and would be less likely to hit them.

But no matter how hard he tried to claw them, they refused to loosen. They were covered with some sort of membrane. Frank couldn't penetrate it. The giant, who had a pitch-black head and flaming hair, tried a swing at him, but he barely dodged it.

He flew away and turned into a lion, dropping onto the ground. He slammed headfirst into a giant, trying to topple him. It worked, and he slammed into the spire. But what Frank wasn't expecting was for him to start spasming, twitching his eyes, arms, legs, fingers. The same was happening to all the giants who were right next to the spire.

"It's the electricity!" Annabeth yelled. "Jason is shocking it! Be careful and don't get near!"

By now, Frank realized that they were fighting a losing battle. Percy was desperately trying to fight three giants at once. While he was still doing well, he was tiring, and Frank knew he couldn't keep it up for much longer. A giant was owning Annabeth, because she wasn't used to her sword. She was using it like a dagger. Without Carter and Walt, they had no way of killing the giants. The only way now was for a god to come help them.

Which it just so happened that they were a bit short on gods.

Even though the tide had turned for a moment, it was turning again. The cannonballs had only given them a bit of time to regroup, but the giants were regrouping as fast. They were getting swarmed again. The Argo II was trying its best to keep them away, but not for long. Any second and they would be completely overpowered. Oh, and they still had no clue who was steering.

Frank transformed into a hawk and dived down to Hazel and Piper, who were fighting a losing battle. He pecked at the giants until they backed off, then flew away, only to get stomped on by a giant with a computer screen for a face. He transformed into the regular him but also with a quiver full of arrows on his back. He shot a few into the giant's screen, which flickered out. He stumbled and nearly fell onto Frank, who turned into a falcon and flew away, barely avoiding the giant's screen-face. It smashed on the ground, breaking into thousands of glass shards.

Frank rocketed into the sky, the wind in his wings, and proceeded to do a barrel roll, then corkscrewed straight into a giant's back. Then, he soared into the giant's mouth while he was screaming in pain, transformed into a drakon and breathed a long, hard breath of flame into his throat. It convulsed, and Frank was spit out of it. He transformed back to a human as he hit the ground, and readied an arrow.

Another one rumbled towards him, roaring in anger, but Frank got an arrow up his nose. Or rather, almost, because another giant had picked him up and was about to drop him into his mouth.

Time slowed down. The giants slumped at the bottom of the spire had woken up, groggily. Somehow, Frank was pretty sure that it was because Jason had finished. Which meant that it hadn't worked. The spire continued to grow.

The Argo II was trying to help, but not really helping. A few giants had surrounded it and it was trying to get away from them. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a way out.

This is it, Frank thought. Looking at the remaining ten to fifteen giants, he sighed. Then closed his eyes.

But once again, the impact never came. Seriously, Frank was getting pretty lucky with nearly dying. Anyways, opening his eyes, he saw a lithe teenage girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen. She was levitating, and wore an ancient Greek chiton. She smacked the giant in the cheek, yelled, "Bad!" and went on to the next one.

Who the- Frank stood up. The girl landed next to him, wearing a cheerleading outfit, complete with skirt and pom-poms. "Hello, Frank Zhang." She eyed him a little, then looked straight ahead. "I am Nike."

Frank knew it was the god, but it still felt kind of weird that he was wearing this goddess on his feet, especially because this goddess accentuated every other word. "So… what are you going to do?"

"Well, I'd presume you'd have at least hit these giants once, right? I'm just going to go Super Saiyan and hit these giants with a blast of pure godness." She flew up into the sky and yelled, "DEMIGODS, CLOSE YOUR EYES!"

Everyone turned away, but Frank was too slow, and a searing light shot through his mind. His entire body filled with power, and his last sensation was that his body was burning up.

He appeared in the recording studio. Charon glanced an eye at him, nodded, and let him pass. Frank tipped him a coin, and stepped into the elevator.

As the boat paddled across the river Styx, Frank thought it kind of strange that his wood hadn't burned out. Iris had once foretold that, and yet that wasn't even what had happened.

He had a nagging suspicion that something had gone wrong.

The dead whispered in his ears, talking lies, truth, fact, fiction. As the boat hit land, the dead piled out. Frank tried to follow them, but he realized that he was glued to the spot.

The boat started to sink. Frank panicked, trying to climb out, but to no avail. The Styx swallowed him whole…

And then he woke up.

Hazel ran up to him, tears in her eyes. She engulfed him in a hug. "Frank, I- we thought you were dead!"

"Yeah." Jason replied, grinning. He was standing next to her. "Piper has some mad skills. She charmspoke you back to life."

"Done it thrice now." She said, grinning.

Leo was right next to her, which meant that he hadn't been the one driving the Argo II. "How did you stop the spire, anyways?" he asked.

"Oh, we didn't actually stop it." Jason replied. "We just moved Mount Olympus out of the way. Of course, Uranus helped as well."

"What about Nike?" Frank asked.

"Oh, she just flew away. You know, she's kind of… spirited. Just does whatever." Piper replied. "Oh, and Percy told Carter and Walt to leave. Something about a chemical reaction… potassium and water or something like that."

"Well, it doesn't really matter. We did it!" Hazel said, grinning. "We saved the world from the giants, and let's just hope that Gaia's fallen asleep again."

Suddenly, the wind picked up, and Frank swore he could hear it say, YOU FOOLS.

Annabeth looked around nervously. "Was that Gaia? Please don't tell me that was Gaia."

"Unfortunately, it was." A voice said behind them. Frank stood up and turned around. So did everyone else. A boy, probably around fifteen, was stepping off the gangplank of the Argo II. He had brown hair and baggy green eyes, like he'd stayed up all night studying. He wore a green shirt and baggy pants, which were covered in strange runes that glowed with power every step he took. His face was covered in freckles. Behind him was an old man, in a large coat and a laptop in his hand.

"And who would you be?" Percy asked.

The teenage boy looked at Percy. Were his eyes glowing with anger?

"I am Alabaster Torrington, he is Dr. Howard Claymore, and no, this battle is not over."

(A/N:I'm not very good with endings. Anyways, I'll see you with the next Nico chapter! And now for Q&A. Remember to write down any questions you might have in the reviews section!

Anon Ymous: OH YAH HARDER MMMMM THIS CHAPTER SUCKSSS OHHHH
Chris, if you don't enjoy this kind of stuff please don't do that. And stop sound like you're having *** every time you say something. It is seriously annoying and disturbing, so you might want to go to a counsellor or something to control your urges to sound perverted. Anyways, no hard feelings?

If you can't tell, I just set this up to answer to my lovely friend's comment above. And yes, I know him. Before you think I am answering to some random person's comment.)