Champion of Olympus

My Granddad Can Beat Up Your Granddad

If I had to describe my experience of dropping 630 feet in the air, it would be me screaming. I could feel the strong wind pushing me down. The heat of the flames was still stuck around my body, despite the harsh wind resistance.

Hopefully my mom really meant that Daos can absorb most falls, because right now, I'm in dire need of some really good shock absorbers.

The ground was approaching me rapidly as I struggled to spread my body as wide as I could to slow myself down. Luckily, there was nobody near my destination, they were all quarantined off by the police at a safe distance. As I saw the ground rapidly close in on me, I wrenched my torso back and placed myself feet first.

My feet touched the ground, and immediately there was an electric shock that ran through my body. I felt my bones rattle as I tumbled to the side, rolling rapidly on the ground as the momentum kept me spinning. Flashes of sharp pain stung throughout my body like needles as I eventually came to a stop. The fire covering my body slowly dissipated away.

There was another loud slam of flesh as a large body crashed against the floor. In my pain, I struggled to look up and saw the Chimera sprawled against the ground as well, cracking the concrete underneath it. It must have fallen from the hole I made at the top of the Arch.

The Chimera wasn't dead, but it was definitely knocked out cold, and I didn't want to be around when it woke up. I got up to my feet shakily as I examined my body. Bruises lined my body and there were scratches all along my sides. My feet were ok, shaky, but ok. I felt like a new fawn that just started to learn how to walk. If I get out of here alive, I'm definitely going to send the best meal offering I can to my mom and Hephaestus.

I heard shouts and yells from the distant crowd as the tiny dot of police started to approach me. Crap, I need to get out of here, I don't know how to explain to them that I fell 630 feet with a monster lion and survived.

I wobbled away as fast as I could away from the police and into the crowd of people.

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Percy's POV

I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's. A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."

"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.

"But he's dry!"

"That's nice, dear."

A news lady was talking for the camera about the incident in the Arch. She reported on the survivors being ok, and was going to ask them some questions.

Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hope Annabeth and Grover were okay. I felt my heart drop immediately.

Asher. He was still up there wasn't he? And he still has that lion monster with him. I need to make sure he's okay. I tried to push through the crowd to see past the police line, hoping for a glimpse into the Arch to see if my friend was okay.

"...adolescent boys," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show two adolescent boys going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities..."

I backed away, trying to keep my head down, I had to get around the police perimeter to find Asher, but it was difficult. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.