Havoc - Piper McLean

29: Heatstroke

"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.

Camilla checked her pockets, "Nah, my jeans are from the women's section, they don't fit a candy bar, let alone a god"

"Hey Cam?" Jason looked at her, "Thanks for saving my butt back there, but you're kind of losing your mind right now"

He turned to the giant, his eyebrows drawn like he was mentally calculating or making a plan. Camilla wondered if Annabeth looked like that while planning. She could see why this Percy Jackson was dating her. He had to be drop dead gorgeous to pull someone like that. 

"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.

"And I'm the one going crazy with heatstroke?" Camilla balked, but no one paid her any attention. 

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

It was an obvious trick, but her voice was so compelling, even Camilla 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.

The more Camilla blinked and forced herself to pay attention, the less her head hurt and more things started to make sense. Okay well, not by much. 

Jason was on the Ginat's shoulder. That didn't make much sense. But okay.

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

Suddenly Camilla 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!"

The hair on Camilla's arm stood up as Piper and Leo both shoved her to the ground, shielding her with their bodies. She would have complained about her chest already being hurt, but then the lightning struck.

CRACK!

When she regained her hearing (mostly) and her sanity (a little), Leo was already on his feet, pulling out a roll of rope out of his tool belt. Camilla staggered to her feet next to her friends as she watched  the scene unfold. 

Jason 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. He and Piper had already let the rope fall into the crater, now it dangled close to Jason. 

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

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