XXXIV

Frank

(A/N: Kind of a filler. Please review.)

Frank looked nervously down at the fields below. Since the end of the fight, Alabaster had been pacing the deck, his face scrunched up. Frank perfectly understood him. After all, the entire world was depending on them. In two days, they had to destroy Mount Everest, Camp Half Blood, Camp Jupiter, Calypso's Island (which was in th middle of nowhere), kill every single remaining Giant, and find the final anchor. No pressure. This time, there was going to be no room for error, no "Well, there's a month left." This was it. A single misstep on their part, and the world was dead. Gaia would take over, and civilization would cease to exist. They were heading to Sicily to drop off Percy and Annabeth. Frank could only hope that they found what they needed from Chronos.

While Frank was busy contemplating his life, he saw a trail of smoke rise from one of the fields. He stared- then realized what was beneath them.

"Leo, slow down!" he yelled.

Leo, who was really busy at the cockpit (he was busy connecting the Archimedes Sphere to the astrolabe and the electrical supply), looked over. "Sure," he said, confused. "Why?"

"Because I think I saw Arion." Frank replied. "Which means that you don't need to ship us halfway across the world."

Leo immediately pulled the controls, and the ship started to descend. The plume of smoke stopped suddenly.

"Leo, throw the ladder overboard!" Frank yelled. He ran downstairs to the cabins, where Hazel was busy talking to Alabaster.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Sorry to interrupt, Hazel, but I think we've gotten ourselves a ride. Arion's here."

Hazel at first looked confused, but when she heard the word Arion, she perked up. "Really?"

Frank nodded. "Yep. Come on, we really need to go. Only two days left, right?"

Hazel looked at the giant digital clock Leo had programmed into the walls, which showed the day 30 July 0:01. "Yeah, we probably should." She stared into Frank's eyes, and in hers he saw fear, deep, intense fear, the kind that you have for everyone around you that you cared about.

As soon as the ship had left Mount Olympus, the sky had darkened considerably. Now, the moon shined bright, creating a giant shadow of the mast as Frank and Hazel climbed down the ladder.

Below them, Arion whinnied in impatience. He didn't like stopping, and Frank knew that he'd much rather be running around right now. The rope ladder swayed violently in the wind; Frank had to hold on tight as he descended down the rungs.

Finally, they dropped down on Terra Firma. Immediately, the ground started to suck at their feet.

"It's Gaia again." Hazel remarked as the boarded Arion, who was cantering on the ground lightly, not letting his hooves touch the ground for too long at a time. "Alabaster told me that Gaia has to channel her energy into various places. Now that we've destroyed the first anchor, it's being diverted into trying to trap us."

Frank got on and gulped. He'd had his fair share of sitting on superfast horses- he was definitely not looking forward to this. He noted the seat belts that had been fitted on the saddle- wait. How did Arion have a saddle? The logo read, Setne Enterprises. He didn't really give much attention to it, but he did put on the seat belt and secure it tightly- he really didn't want to fall off the back of a horse. He saw Hazel doing the same, then she told Arion, "To Mount Diablo!"

He was so sleepy; he drifted off in no time. In front of him, he was also aware that Hazel had done the same, and he fell into a endless, and thankfully dreamless, sleep.

Frank woke up to Hazel's shaking him. He saw the shine of the sun above him, and below him was sand, going by really, really fast. He looked around him and a gust after gust of sand hit him in the face. They were in the Nevada Desert, and in front of them was a lot of mountains. Beyond that, Frank could barely see a skyline of San Francisco. They had been riding through the night, and the fastest horse on Earth had done it again. He probably was pretty tired right now, but he was still going insanely fast, zipping past bushes, lakes, like they were nothing. One moment they were there, the next moment they weren't.

Arion zipped past the mountains, and into the sparse woodlands of California. He zipped onto a highway, dodging cars and buses.

"Hazel!" Frank yelled. "What time is it?"

"It's seven o'clock!" She yelled back. "We're back in the good old US of A!"

Frank could only stare forward as Arion sped past everything in his path. As soon as Frank got his bearings about him, Arion started to slow down, dodging traffic, speeding past traffic lights. He sped up a hill, and slowed to a canter in the woods. Finally, just before the summit, he stopped.

Frank and Hazel unclipped their seat belts and stepped off tentatively, and when the ground did not swallow them up, the placed their feet on the soil with ease.

Arion sped away, probably in search of gold to eat.

Frank and Hazel brushed themselves off and slowly inched their way up the hill. Hazel motioned for Frank to get down, which he did.

"What is that?" he whispered.

Enceladus, was relatively short compared to the other giants Frank had faced, but that wasn't what Hazel was talking about. What she was talking about was the giant swarm of Earthborn that surrounded him. But that hadn't been exactly what she had been talking about. It was what they were wearing. They were all wearing identical sombreros, along with shakers on each of their six hands. It looked like they were having a Mexican fiesta up there.

"What the heck?" Frank whispered back. This was not what they had been expecting. Enceladus stood in the middle of the mountain, laughing maniacally while partying to some strange dance music. It might have been Frank Sinatra or some 50's music, which was quite weird considering the theme.

"Hey, Frank, got any gods handy right about now?" Hazel whispered.

Frank shrugged helplessly. Hazel checked her watch. "Seven-fifteen, and we've got a whole bunch of giants to fight. Should we just jump in there and fight it out?"

"I wouldn't recommend that." Frank said. "What are the odds that a god is suddenly going to come out of nowhere and help us?"

Suddenly, the air behind them solidified. Minerva was suddenly behind them, kneeling in the ground and coughing.

Frank and Hazel both jumped back suddenly.

"Frank Zhang." She said coldly, staring at both of them. "Hazel Levesque."

"Erm, yeah?" Frank muttered.

"I prefer to be called Athena. Now, as for the reason why I am here. I am here to help you fight this Giant."