misplaced || l. valdez

36 || we rock'n'rolled so hard that porphyrion loses his ears

° ~ •. ♆ chapter thirty-six ♆ .• ~ °
"we rock'n'rolled so hard that prophyrion loses his ears"

"Excellent!" the giant roared as Jason and Mari approached. "Appetizers! Who did the gods send me— Ares and Athena? Apollo and Artemis?"

Mari was pretty sure Apollo and Artemis were twins, and as far she was concerned, she looked nothing like Jason, with his pale skin and blond hair and electric blue eyes. She glanced at Jason, who gave her a curt nod that let her know to let him do all the talking.

"I'm Jason Grace." he said to the giant. "Son of Jupiter."

Porphyrion's white eyes stared at him intently before turning to Mari. "And you?"

There goes Jason doing all the talking, Mari thought miserably.

"My name is Mariana Somera." she said. "Daughter of Neptune."

Behind them, she heard Leo's circular saw whirring around as it cut the cage, and Piper talking to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

Porphyrion looked at them both for a second before throwing his head back and laughing.

"Outstanding!" He looked up at the cloudy night sky. "So, Zeus, Poseidon, you sacrifice your children to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."

Nothing came from the sky or the ground, not even the sound of thunder or the rumble of the earth.

Jason dropped his makeshift club. How he was going to buy them time without a weapon, Mari had no clue, but she trusted that he knew what he was doing. She cautiously drew her sword, careful not to accidentally stab herself out of fear.

"If you knew who I was," Jason yelled up at the giant, "you'd be worried about me, not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I'm going to send you right back to Tartarus."

The giant's eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at his opponent. "So... we'll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod. I am Porphyrion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tartarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen." He grinned at the goddess's cage. "Hello, Hera."

"My husband destroyed you once, monster!" Hera said. "He'll do it again!"

"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth— and we will destroy you at the roots."

"You wouldn't dare." Hera said, but she was weakening. Mari could hear it in her voice. Piper kept whispering to the cage, and Leo kept sawing, but the earth was still rising inside Hera's prison, covering her up to her waist.

"Oh, yes." the giant said. "The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees— your eldest roots torn out and burned."