artemis ; pjo

Attack

"Prince, activate cannons" Gabby said.

"Uh, Gabby, let's wait for them to attack first" I insisted. We all agreed to fly, but since we have 6 demigods our sent let out a signal to a large group of dracanae snake ladies. It doesn't help that half of us have powerful blood. James, Eric, and I.

"Ha, yeah right. Have you met me? Prince, fire!" Gabby ordered.

"No! Prince stop! We might hurt a mortal!" I called out. Prince creaked and groaned as he folded his cannons.
"What are you thinking Gabby?!"

"I'm not thinking, I'm attacking. Again, have you met me?" Gabby said.

"Compromise, we lure them in a secluded area, then kill them" I offered.

"I guess that works"

   We flew northwest, towards what we hoped was an empty field or something like that. The cool September air whipped my hair around. I remembered that we had half a month left before all of humanity was left in the dark. Looking down, I felt so much pressure on my shoulders. I saw families and friends walking around and I realized that if we failed, all these people wouldn't survive much longer. The thought made me feel like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, just waiting for me to give up hope and crush me. Then my father's words swept through my mind:

Hope stands for Hold On, Pain Ends

Thinking about my dad made my hands float up to my necklace out of habit. I really wish he's right, cause I could use some.

"Amanda, we'll be fine" James said, seeing my facial expression.

"I hope you're right" I replied. James turned around and took my hand. He squeezed it. Man he was cute. I swept some of his shaggy, dark hair out of his face. His sea green eyes lit up, and he ran his thumb across my knuckles. I wanted to lean over and kiss his cheek, but MK would never let me live it down. James opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. Like a fish.

"You look like a fish, fishboy" I pointed out, squeezing his hand back.

"Nice one, little wolf"

I cracked a smile.

"The place is barren. Time to burn some snakes" Gabby announced. James flashed me a smile before turning back around.

"Fire!" Gabby declared. Prince roared as canons sprouted from under his wings. Missiles shot down at the dracanae. One turned into dust.

"Take that, rat breath" Gabby yelled at the dust. Another threw her sword at us. It barely missed quiet Eric. Their snake tails slivered along as they dodged our ammunition.

"Arhhhhg, just die. The cannons aren't working, ceasefire! I'll get them, just you wait" Gabby promised.

"Can I-?" James began.

"Yes, yes. You all can. There's more than a dozen down there" Gabby said, waving her hand. James thrust his hands out and two geysers shot three snake ladies into the sky. They rained down on their brethren as dust.

Gabby cheered.
"Now that's what I call quality fighting!"

   MK grew thorny vines and choked about six. Brutal. Gabby insisted to Dan that he should make some butt kicking rainbows. After a lot of nagging, Dan gave in after giving a peace speech. So his freaky rainbows picked off a good few. I transformed my cuff into a bow, and I took down four. Eric even pitched in and summoned three dead warriors. Madi told me that summoning them took energy, but Eric didn't seem too tired. Prince blew fire, and melted a good amount. With all this teamwork we were using, the dracanae were dropping like flies. They didn't even have time to throw anything at us.

Soon the only thing in this empty field was mountains of dust.

"Woooo hooooo! THIS IS HOW ITS DONE!" Gabby screamed at the top of her lungs. She had Dan land the dragon and Gabby jumped off onto the ground. Gabby started stomping on the dust piles.

"Suckers! Have fun in Tartarus!" Gabby spat as she kicked the dust. The dead warriors melted back into the ground after Eric had a word with them. It was creepy.

Gabby, Dan, James, and I had changed into casual clothes earlier in a public bathroom when we were in the city. I played with the stitching at the end of my plain white shirt. My back had sort of healed, but the cuts were still open and sore. I was itching to get out of here.

"Come on, you can gloat later. We gotta go!" I begged.

"Fine" Gabby said, throwing a fistful of snake-lady dust.

We all climbed on Prince and he rose up in the air. He soared through the sky and towards Pikes Peak.