Home|| Leo Valdez

37

When she regained his focus, she was sitting at the rim of a crater next to Jason. Enceladus stood at the other side, staggering and confused. The javelin's and the dagger's destruction had released so much energy, it had blasted a perfect cone-shaped pit thirty feet deep, fusing the dirt and rock into a slick glassy substance. Alex wasn't sure how she'd survived, but his clothes were steaming. They were out of energy. They had no weapon. And Enceladus was still very much alive.

"Impressive! Unfortunately, that was your last trick, demigod."The giant roared.

Enceladus leaped the crater in a single bound, planting his feet on either side of Jason. The giant raised his spear, its tip hovering six feet over Jason's chest.

Alex tried to get up, to take the giant's attention away from Jason or preferably kill the giant but she realised she couldn't move. Just as Enceladus was about to drive his spear through Jason-

Leo's voice yelled, "Heads up!"

A large black metal wedge slammed into Enceladus with a massive thunk! The giant toppled over and slid into the pit.

Piper was suddenly by their side, helping the two up. But what really energised Alex was seeing Leo, who was about a hundred feet behind her. He was standing over a piece of construction equipment-a long cannon like thing with a single massive piston, the edge broken clean off.

Then Alex looked down in the crater and saw where the other end of the hydraulic axe had gone. Enceladus was struggling to rise, an axe blade the size of a washing machine stuck in his breastplate.

Amazingly, the giant managed to pull the axe blade free. He yelled in pain and the mountain trembled. Golden ichor soaked the front of his armour, but Enceladus stood.

Shakily, he bent down and retrieved his spear.

"Good try." The giant winced. "But I cannot be beaten."

As they watched, the giant's armour mended itself, and the ichor stopped flowing. Even the cuts on his dragon-scale legs, which Jason and Alex had worked so hard to make, were now just pale scars.

Leo ran up to them, saw the giant, and cursed. "What is it with this guy? Die, already!"

"My fate is preordained," Enceladus said. "Giants cannot be killed by gods or heroes."

"Only by both," Alex said. The giant's smile faltered, and she saw in his eyes something like fear. "It's true, isn't it? Gods and demigods have to work together to kill you." She remembered reading something like that somewhere.

"You will not live long enough to try!" The giant started stumbling up the crater's slope, slipping on the glassy sides.

"Anyone have a god handy?" Leo asked.

"Leo," Jason said, "if you've got a rope in that tool belt, get it ready."

He leaped at the giant with no weapon but his bare hands. Alex cursed her stupid friend.

"Enceladus!" Piper yelled. "Look behind you!"

It was an obvious trick, but her voice was so compelling, even Alex bought it. The giant said, "What?" and turned like there was an enormous spider on his back.

Jason tackled his legs at just the right moment. The giant lost his balance. Enceladus slammed into the crater and slid to the bottom. While he tried to rise, Jason put his arms around the giant's neck. When Enceladus struggled to his feet, Jason was riding his shoulders.

"Get off!" Enceladus screamed. He tried to grab Jason's legs, but Jason scrabbled around, squirming and climbing over the giant's hair.

Jason looked up to the sky and Alex understood immediately what he was going for. Suddenly she could smell the metallic scent of a storm. Darkness swallowed the sun. The giant froze, sensing it too.

Jason yelled to his friends, "Hit the deck!"

And every hair on Alex's arm stood straight up.

Crack!

Lightning surged through Jason's body, straight through Enceladus, and into the ground. The giant's back stiffened, and Jason was thrown clear. When he regained his bearings, he was slipping down the side of the crater, and the crater was cracking open. The lightning bolt had split the mountain itself. The earth rumbled and tore apart, and Enceladus's legs slid into the chasm. He clawed helplessly at the glassy sides of the pit, and just for a moment managed to hold on to the edge, his hands trembling.

He fixed Jason with a look of hatred. "You've won nothing, boy. My brothers are rising, and they are ten times as strong as I. We will destroy the gods at their roots! You will die, and Olympus will die with-"

The giant lost his grip and fell into the crevice.

The earth shook. Jason fell toward the rift.

"Grab hold!" Leo yelled as he and Alex threw the rope at him.

Jason's feet were at the edge of the chasm when he grabbed the rope, and his friends pulled him up.

They stood together, exhausted and terrified, as the chasm closed like an angry mouth. The ground stopped pulling at their feet.

For now, Gaea was gone. But Alex knew that she wasn't defeated yet.

The mountainside was on fire. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the air. Alex spotted a helicopter-maybe firefighters or reporters-coming toward them.

All around them was carnage. The Earth born had melted into piles of clay, leaving behind only their rock missiles and some nasty bits of loincloth, but Jason figured they would re-form soon enough. Construction equipment lay in ruins. The ground was scarred and blackened.
Coach Hedge started to move. He sat up with a groan and rubbed his head. His canary yellow pants were now the colour of Dijon mustard mixed with mud.

He blinked and looked around him at the battle scene. "Did I do this?"

Before anyone could reply, Hedge picked up his club and got shakily to his feet. "Yeah, you wanted some hoof? I gave you some hoof, cupcakes! Who's the goat, huh?"

He did a little dance, kicking rocks and making what were probably rude satyr gestures at the piles of clay.

Leo cracked a smile, and Alex couldn't help it- All of them started to laugh. It probably sounded a little hysterical, but it was such a relief to be alive, she didn't care.

Then a man stood up across the clearing. Tristan McLean staggered forward. His eyes were hollow, shell-shocked, like someone who'd just walked through a nuclear wasteland.

"Piper?" he called. His voice cracked. "Pipes, what-what is-"

He couldn't complete the thought. Piper ran over to him and hugged him tightly, but he almost didn't seem to know her.

Alex knew he must have been freaking out, even to her everything was overwhelming. Tristan McLean had too many memories, too much trauma his mind just couldn't handle. He was coming apart.

"We need to get him out of here," Jason said.

"Yeah, but how?" Leo said. 

"He's in no shape to walk." Alex pointed out.

Jason glanced up at the helicopter, which was now circling directly overhead. "Can you make us a bullhorn or something?" he asked Leo. "Piper has some talking to do."