ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

100

YEAH NO, GETTING slapped across the world was the worst experience to ever be experienced.

Kat was so out of it. Her vision was blurry, she might've thrown up, it was not a good time. She thought she'd be trapped in the lower deck with most the others forever when Frank and Hazel, aka Kat's heroes, busted open the hatch and stumbled through to fresh air. Kat, Piper, Percy, and Annabeth quickly followed.

"Go!" Leo yelled. "Go, go, go!"

For once, his tone was deadly serious.

They'd talked through their evacuation plan, but that slap across the world had made Kat's mind sluggish. Judging from the others' expressions, they weren't in much better shape.

Buford the table saved them. 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 Buford buzzed away.

Frank changed form. Instead of a dazed demigod, he was now a dazed gray dragon. Hazel climbed onto his neck. Frank grabbed Percy and Annabeth in his front claws, then spread his wings and soared away.

Jason held Kat and Piper by the waist, ready to fly. Kat made the mistake of glancing down. The view was a spinning kaleidoscope of sky, earth, sky, earth. The ground was getting awfully close.

"Leo, you won't make it!" shouted Jason. "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!"

Kat took a last look at the splintering ship.

The Argo II had been their home for so long. Now they were abandoning it. Rest in peace, Emory Blackthorn the black cat. But Leo had a plan. He always did.

Jason, Piper, and Kat shot into the sky.

The ground wasn't much less chaotic.

As they plummeted, Kat saw a vast army of monsters spread across the hills — cynocephali, two-headed men, wild centaurs, ogres and others she couldn't even name from up here — 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 two groups of Romans, rallied around a golden eagle. The other three Roman groups were in a defensive formation several hundred yards away and seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack.

Giant eagles circled Jason, screeching urgently, as if looking for orders.

Frank the gray dragon flew alongside with his passengers.

"Hazel!" yelled Jason. "Those three cohorts are in trouble! If they don't merge with the rest of the demigods—"

"On it!" said Hazel. "Go, Frank!"

Dragon Frank veered to the left with Annabeth in one claw yelling, "Let's get 'em!" and Percy in the other claw screaming, "I hate flying!" Weakling.

Piper, Jason, and Kat veered right towards the summit of Half-Blood Hill.

Kat saw Nico di Angelo on the front lines with the Greeks, slashing his way through a crowd of two-headed men. A few feet away, Reyna sat astride a new pegasus, her sword drawn. She shouted orders at the legion, and the Romans obeyed without question, as if she'd never been away.

Kat didn't see Octavian anywhere. Good. Neither did she see a colossal earth goddess laying waste to the world. Very good. Perhaps Gaia had risen, taken one look at the modern world and decided to go back to sleep. Kat wished they could be that lucky, but they were never that lucky. Like, come on, is the world really that great to want to take it over?