~The Camp Van~

Hazel, Piper, Annabeth and Jason waited impatiently as Percy filled up the van and disappeared inside the petrol station to pay. Jason and Piper went back to their game of scissors paper rock. Hazel went back to staring out the window.

Annabeth growled, frustrated. ‘This map is impossible,’ she complained. ‘Everything’s so cryptic.’

‘Where’s Percy?’ Hazel mumbled, trying to look out the car window and into the station.

Annabeth shrugged, ‘He’ll be going as fast as he can. He’s not going to give up on this. He never gives up on friends.’

‘That can be both a good thing and a bad thing,’ Jason said as he lost again to Piper (‘Paper, Jason. Really?’).

‘You’re telling me?’ Annabeth scoffed. ‘Anyway, here he comes now?’

Percy’s door clicked as he climbed in and started the engine. He turned in his seat and gave them a half-hearted smile, holding up a little bag, ‘Jelly Beans, anyone?’

Piper, Jason, Hazel and Annabeth face palmed. They all stared at him and his smile dropped.

‘Yes please,’ Jason mumbled, taking the bag. Piper swatted him on the shoulder.

‘Let’s go!’ Hazel demanded.

Percy drove out and hit the road, ‘Where’s our dot recon, Wise Girl?’

Annabeth bit her lip, ‘It’s really faint. I don’t know how much longer it’ll last. Go right here, and then left at the next round about.’

‘How do you think this happened?’ Piper asked.

‘Because you charmspeaked him into doing all this in the first place,’ Hazel snapped, crossing her arms.

Piper hunched her shoulders, feeling guilty, ‘I know, and I’m sorry. But that isn’t the reason he ran. And how come he can’t change back?’

The angry look on Hazel’s face dropped a little, replaced with a sad, heartbroken expression, ‘I don’t know.’

‘I think I do,’ Percy grumbled. ‘I think it’s the same person who attacked us on Valentine’s Day, that figure Frank said he saw? Maybe it’s messing with him again.’

‘What have they got against Frank?’ Jason wondered, bewildered.

‘Who knows?; Annabeth shrugged. ‘It could be anything. It may not be him at all, maybe it’s a family grudge. His family and the gods do go way back.’

‘But this is a stupid way of getting back at his family,’ Piper frowned. ‘Waiting until he shifts into a rabbit then trapping him in that form so he has to stay a rabbit for the rest of his life? Who even has that kind of power?’

‘Whoever’s doing this?’ Jason guessed unhelpfully.

‘Gee, never would’ve thought that,’ Piper said sarcastically.

Percy laughed as he turned onto a deserted highway, following Annabeth’s instructions. Piper and Jason continued their friendly back and forth banter. Then Hazel screamed.

Percy jerked the wheel all the way to the left, throwing Hazel against the window, Piper into Hazel, and Jason into Piper. Annabeth yelped as the seat belt caught around her throat. Percy struggled to gain control of the vehicle but the Hydra smashed one of its heads against the windshield, spraying glass shards over the demigods.

‘Get out!’ Percy screamed, digging in his pocket for Riptide.

Jason, Piper and Hazel filed out of the van fast, unsheathing their weapons and facing the five headed Hydra. Percy was about to follow when Annabeth called his name.

‘The seat belts stuck,’ she yelled. ‘I can’t get out.’

The Hydra slammed its foot down on the front of the car, lifting the back end into the air, Annabeth screamed and Percy fell out the smashed windshield, earning a collection of scratches and tumbling to the asphalt.

‘Annabeth’s stuck,’ he informed the others, taking a swing at the Hydra’s foot and missing. ‘We have to get her out before this thing smashes up the car.’

‘I think you mean smashes up the car even more,’ Piper grumbled, but she headed for the van, and tried to open the door. ‘The handle’s crunched up! It won’t open.’

‘Keep trying!’ Jason called to her, dodging a spray of acid from the Hydra’s middle head.

Piper attacked the door with her knife as the others circled around the Hydra, dancing around acid sprays and looking for opportunities.

‘Don’t cut its head off,’ Percy warned as Hazel nearly decapitated a head that got too close for her liking. ‘Two more will just grow back. I’ve faced this thing before.’

‘How did you kill it then?’ Jason asked breathlessly.

‘Uh, we sorta blew it up.’

Hazel let out a short laugh, ‘That might be difficult in this situation.’

‘You think?’ Jason said sarcastically.

The Hydra’s foot came down again, its sharp taloned foot inches from Annabeth’s throat. The daughter of Athena screamed. Percy hacked at its foot until he had the monsters attention. Jason and Hazel tried to sneak around the back to stab it, Roman style. But the monster sensed them, and two heads flicked acid at them. Jason and Hazel were forced to retreat. The other three heads were fixed on Percy who had got himself trapped under its taloned. No escape.

‘Percy!’ Annabeth screamed.

‘I’ve almost got it,’ Piper grunted, shoving her knife at the hinges. The door popped off. ‘Yes!’

She sliced through Annabeth’s seat belt and the daughter of Athena immediately leaped through the broken windshield, drawing her sword and lunging at the beast, shouting an angry battle cry in Greek. The Hydra caught her on one of its heads and tossed her away like a rag doll.

‘Annabeth!’ Percy shouted as she hit the road with a sickening crack.

Annabeth moaned and try to stand, but collapsed back on the ground. Jason and Hazel ran over to her. Percy’s attention was brought back to the Hydra as it prepared to spit acid directly in his face. Piper scratched at the monsters legs, but it payed her no attention. Percy sent a silent prayer to the gods, asking for something-anything-to save them.

An explosion suddenly lit up the sky; a ball of flames that lit the Hydra on Fire. The monster roared and clawed at its burning heads. Percy took the chance to scramble out. The Hydra whipped around wildly as it crumbled to ashes. Soon there was nothing left my monster dust.

‘What the-’ Piper didn’t finish because she glanced up and her mouth fell open.

Percy, about to ask her what she meant, looked up as well and followed her example. He had asked for something to save them, he just didn’t expect that something anything to come in the form of a metal dragon with three smirking riders.