Divergent Demigod **Adopted**

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

So much for a tender farewell. The last I saw Zeus, He was a hundred feet tall, holding the Argo II by its prow. He boomed, “HOLD ON!”

Then he tossed the ship up and spiked it overhand like a volleyball.

If I hadn’t been strapped to the mast with one of Leo’s twenty-point safety harnesses, I would have disintegrated. As it was, my stomach tried to stay behind in Greece.

The sky turned black and the ship rattled and creaked from the pressure. The deck cracked like thin ice under my legs and, with a sonic boom, the Argo II hurtled out of the clouds.

“Guys!” Leo shouted. “Hurry!”

My fingers felt like lead, but I managed to undo my straps and help the others.

Leo was lashed to the control console, desperately trying to straighten the ship as we spiraled downward in a free fall. The sails were on fire and Festus creaked in alarm. A catapult peeled away and lifted into the air. Centrifugal force sent the shields flying off the railings like metal Frisbees.

Wider cracks opened in the deck as I staggered towards the hold, using the water vapor in the air to keep myself anchored.

Then the hatch burst open. Frank and Hazel stumbled through, pulling on the guide rope they’d attached to the mast. Piper and Annabeth followed, everyone was looking disoriented.

“Go!” Leo yelled. “Go, go, go!”

For once, Leo’s tone was deadly serious.

We talked through their evacuation plan before we left, but being slapped across the world had made my mind sluggish. Judging from the others’ expressions, they were in the same boat as i was.

Buford the table saved us. He clattered across the deck with his holographic Hedge blaring, “LET’S GO! MOVE IT! CUT THAT OUT!”

Then his tabletop split into helicopter blades and he buzzed away.

Frank changed form. Instead of a dazed demigod, he was now a dazed dragon. Hazel climbed onto his neck. Frank grabbed me and Annabeth in his front claws, then spread his wings and got ready to soar away.

Piper jumped on Frank and yelled at Leo.

“Leo, you won’t make it!” Piper shouted. “Come with us!”

“No! Get out of here!”

“Leo!” Piper tried. “Please –”

“Save your charmspeak, Pipes! I told you, I’ve got a plan. Now shoo!”

I took a last look at the splintering ship. The Argo II had been their home for so long. Now they were abandoning it for good, and leaving Leo behind.

I hated it, but I saw the determination in Leo’s eyes, and I knew he had a plan.

The ground wasn’t much less chaotic.

As we plummeted, I saw a vast army of monsters spread across the hills – cynocephali, two- headed men, wild centaurs, ogres, cyclops, a few harpies and a few more that I didn't remember the name to, surrounding two tiny islands of demigods. At the crest of Half-Blood Hill, gathered at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, was the main force of Camp Half-Blood along with the First and Fifth Cohorts, rallied around the golden eagle of the legion. The other three Roman cohorts were in a defensive formation several hundred yards away and seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack.