Earthshaker (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Definitely the worst way to die

Hi, my name is Diana Chase-Jackson. I live in the city of Rome. No, not in Italy, New Rome as in right here in America, just off the horizon of Berkeley Hills in San Francisco.
And no, I am not Roman either even though I was born and raised and spent all of my existing years there. I am pretty sure I'm all-American, but then I'm also Greek. In fact, I also live in Greece. Not the 'Ancient Greece' Greece, but in the Greek summer camp in Long Island Sound - camp half-blood.
I spend all of my summers there, training with all the other modern Greek demigods of America. Sometimes I don't move back to New Rome and spend a whole year at camp.
My father is a son of the sea god, Poseidon. And my mother? She's a daughter of the goddess of wisdom, Athena.

Am I a half-blood?

Yes. That's what they say I am. But mostly, I'm pure mortal, except for the fact that I've inherited most of my father's demigod traits.
You know, ADHD, dyslexia, oh and some of his stubbornness too.

Why am I reciting my life story to you? Well, the thing is, camp half-blood hasn't permitted me to go out on official demigod quests yet, but I have disobeyed my mother so now I am caught here in a big mosh pit of Karpoi here in downtown New York. Evil grain spirits. How they got in the city of New York, I don't know. All I know is that this is probably the last day of my life and I felt like I should share my story with you.

Yes, I know, little not-so-cute baby evil spirits with ugly teeth aren't the best and most heroic way to die, but it might have to do. I was hoping for some gryphons or maybe a hydra, or maybe just a plain wild, rabid dog. I mean, all that may sound heroic. But these gnarly creatures? They're a joke.
Apparently, not much of a joke because sooner or later, I might die within their hands. Or, roots. Whatever they are called.

You see that little kid in the alley in between two skyscrapers? That kid with the long black hair that's kneeling with her bow and arrow in hand and a bunch of angry evil soirits closing in on her? That's me.

As I kneel and hover on one knee, I shoot the last arrow from my quiver and send three Karpois blasting off into the street and watch it get hit by speeding taxis.
My chest is still hurting from the claw of that one Karpoi, and my left ankle got twisted from jumping off the roof of a three-storey building.
Hey, no judging! I'm ADHD and my instincts told me to jump, so I jumped. Apparently my instincts sucked.
I managed to block down six more with my bow, but these grain spirits kept coming like a waterfall.

"Knock it off!" I yelled, as I whack another one in the head and throw it to another, and they disintegrate into ashes.

Just as another group of Karpoi are about to ransack me, a large eagle soared overhead and gave a loud screech causing the Karpoi to stop and look up confused. I take the opportunity to whack them off me.

Great. I really wasn't hoping for gryphons, but now it's really here. Just my luck.
How much scent can one small, crazy demigod have to get attacked by so many monsters in less than twenty-four hours?
I haven't even been out for a day, and already a great assortment of monsters have come my way, all ready to eat me alive.
I look at the confused herd of Karpois that are about to close in on me, and watch as the eagle spew fire and raze all of them, immediately disposing them.

Did gryphons blow fire?

"Well, what have we here?" I realize a guy with rusty hair and fire on his hands are being carried in between the claws of the eagle.
Okay, so maybe it is not a gryphon, I may not have that much essence after all.

The eagle drops him ten feet above the ground and he comes crashing down through a bunch of trash bins and all sorts of laundry.

"Ow ow ow ow ow," he mumbled.

He rolled over and finally got his bearings and stood in front of me, both hands still paddling like he's struggling to get balance.

"Fai! We still really need to work on your landing drop, you big, burly Canadian punk!" the guy in the red shirt yelled above at the soaring eagle.

Another loud screech and the eagle changed back to human form, with cool landing like when Superman drops off from flying, and walked towards me and the other guy.

"Don't call me Fai, Graecus. Only my grandma calls me that, and she is long gone." the eagle/man answered, bumping his shoulder with the other tanned guy's, causing him to stumble a bit.

"Whatever. Anyway, you called for help, young lady?" the tanned guy turned to me with a sideways grin, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Hey, Uncle Leo." I answered with a smile.

"Hey there, my favorite goddaughter." uncle Leo said with a wink.

"Uncle Frank." I give uncle Frank a nod, who's looking big and strict and muscle-y and Chinese as ever. He looks like one of those big bouncers in the gates of parties or events, except he's really white and his eyes are looking extra Asian.
He nods back and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

See, bouncer much?

I tried to stand, which I regretted as soon as I'd done it, because pain severed throughout my entire leg up to my thigh. I screamed and fell to one side, dropping my bow but uncle Leo grabbed me immediately. Uncle Frank picked up the bow.

"What in the name of Hades happened to you, girl?" he remarked, eyeing the cut on my chest.

"Karpoi happened," I managed to answer. "And also, my parents happened."

"Yeah, they still not big on letting you use bows?" Uncle Frank asked, rubbing my bow with a white towel which he got from I don't know where exactly.

I nodded and sighed.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, still trying to ignore the pain shooting up from my ankle as uncle Leo settles me down.

"Well we were honestly just passing by, you know me and your uncle Frank here," uncle Leo said as he patted uncle Frank on the shoulder. He's way shorter than uncle Frank but his strength caused him to stagger a bit on one side making him whisper 'ow'.

"And then we heard somebody scream for help so we kinda just did our job as friendly, heroic citizens of New York City."

"Um, you just said uncle Frank is Canadian," I say in a matter-of-fact tone.

Uncle Leo cleared his throat, "the point is, we came to help."

"I didn't ask for help." I said firmly, looking away, and into my ankle which is badly swollen and bleeding. It's not supposed to bleed if it's swollen, but then I notice bite marks around it.

Ugh. That's just disgusting.

"Okay then! Off we go now, Frankie boy," Uncle Leo turned around, along with uncle Frank. "Guess the cry for help wasn't from here then, we gotta go find it."

They both turned around and I watched closely as uncle Frank morphed into a giant eagle, and then flapped his giant feathery wings.

"See you later," uncle Leo positioned to climb in on the eagle's back.

I looked down at my swollen and obviously un-walkable feet and then yelled, "wait!"
They both turned to me.

"I-I need help."