The Return of Leo Valdez (After Blood of Olympus)

26- Frank

Frank

Cars flew on the highway at speeds that seemed a million miles an hour.

"What do we do?" Hazel yelled over the scorpions pounding feet. "We'll be crushed."

"Frank," Reyna yelled. "Turn into a California Vulture, we need you to fly us across the road."

Frank nodded and concentrated on the endangered animal. When Frank first started shape-shifting, he needed full concentration in order to change. Now, Frank could easily change into animals with almost no thought. But something was strange, Frank didn't feel anything, his eyesight didn't change, nothing changed. He was just Frank.

"What's the hold up?" Reyna yelled.

Sweat beaded Franks forehead. "I don't know," Frank shouted. "I can't do it."

"Try harder!" Reyna hollered.

"Can't you see I'm trying?" Frank screamed back.

"Guys?" Hazel said tapping Reyna's shoulder. "There catching up."

Frank turned around and stared at the creatures wide eyed. They were only about 100 yards away.

"We need to act fast," Frank said frantically.

The sound of the scorpions charging got louder every second. Frank could almost hear the sound of their mouth acid hitting the dry Texas ground.

"We're going to have to run through the streets," Reyna said.

"But we'll die!" Hazel repeated.

"We need to do it," Reyna said as she dove into the traffic.

Franks heart weighed him down. Reyna dodged cars by ducking and rolling. Frank nearly had a heart attack every time Reyna got close to a whizzing car.

He turned around and saw the scorpions were only about 50 yards away. Frank knew this was the only way.

"Come on Hazel," Frank said. "We need to do this."

The scorpions were only 40 yards away, 35 yards away, 30 yards away.

Hazel nodded as they both took off into the highway.

Franks first thought was "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

Frank rolled to the side as a car barely missed him. Frank jerked his head to the left and saw a car racing towards him, Frank screamed and drove out of the way.

Frank couldn't see Reyna or Hazel, he was too busy concentrating.

The car flew past Frank. A huge gust of wind blew taking Frank with it.

Frank tumbled and turned as he flew across the roadway. Blood from his arm, forehead and knees trickled down on to the blacktop.

Frank shakily got up, his legs were covered in blood and his arms were scraped up. Frank clutched his forehead and winced in pain.

Then, Frank saw something so bright it blinded him- more headlights.

Frank looked at the next lane. Another car came rolling down the highway.

The car on the next lane was a little bit in front of the car in Frank's lane. It's blinker was on to turn right, the lane Frank was in.

The cars were 50 feet away, 40 feet, 30 feet. Frank began to panic.

"Come on!" Reyna yelled on the other side, safe and sound. Standing next to her was Hazel.

Frank had to time to change into an animal. If he couldn't of changed before, how could he change now?

The cars were edging closer with every second. 25 feet, 20 feet, 15 feet.

Finally, Frank's Mars instincts kicked in. Frank snapped out of his panic and did the impossible.

He jumped over the moving car.

At first Frank felt great about this, he was finally being Mars, or...something like it. But then, Frank realized it was just going to end badly.

The whole time blood rushed to Franks head. The car whizzed by under him and he spiraled out of control.

The child of Mars crashed to the concrete ground with a thud. His ankle throbbed with pain and his vision was getting hazy.

"Frank!" Hazel screamed from the other side.

Suddenly, Frank felt his arms get longer, his face get smaller. His body turned a strange brown color and his nose turned yellow, got harder and expanded outwards.

He was turning into a California Vulture.

"Zhang! What's going on?" Reyna yelled from the other side.

Frank partially knew what was going on. For some reason, Frank's shape shifting was delayed.

"Frank! Watch out!" Hazel yelled.

Frank turned is head, a car was closing in and him, and even worse, the scorpions were not stopped by the cars.

They stomped away, crushing innocent mortals with their pointy legs.

Frank flapped his wings and took off into the sky. He suddenly felt the world was just lifted off his shoulders. He was free from all the cars, plus the demon scorpions.

"Frank!" Reyna yelled. "Come down here and help us!"

Oh yeah, Frank thought. Hazel and Reyna still aren't okay.

Frank dove down, he cut through the air like it was jello. The boy let out the loudest battle screech you could make using a California Vulture's vocal chords.

In the battle below, There was three large purple scorpions below. Reyna was ducking a rolling, fighting two at the same time.

Hazel was dodging another scorpions acid spit and poisonous stinger. All around her, three skeleton warriors helped take down the monster.

Frank shot through the air and landed behind one of the monsters Reyna was fighting.

Come on body. Frank thought as he tried to change back. Nothing happened.

Come on! Why aren't you doing anything!

Frank has never had a shape shifting delay in a long time. Something was wrong.

Suddenly, an agonizing scream erupted from Reyna's mouth. The scorpion swung it's tail around and hit Reyna right in the side.

She flew back and hit a small cliff. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. She was knocked out cold. Her sword was a few yards away from her, but the scorpions came in for the kill.

The rocks from on top of the cliff shook. Suddenly, they began to move. An avalanche was coming.

There was good news and bad news about this situation. The good news was the scorpions would be killed by the avalanche. The bad news was Reyna, Frank and Hazel would be killed also.

In even worse news, Frank couldn't do anything about it and neither could Reyna. Everything was up to Hazel who was battling a scorpion of her own, and she seemed like she was loosing.

This was the end. Frank was sure of it.