Things went wrong immediately.
The giants vanished in twin puffs of smoke. They reappeared halfway across the room, each in a different spot. Percy sprinted toward Ephialtes, but slots in the floor opened under his feet, and metal walls shot up on either side, separating him from his friends.
The walls started closing in on him like the sides of a vice grip. Percy jumped up and grabbed the bottom of the hydra's cage. He caught a brief glimpse of Piper leaping across a hopscotch pattern of fiery pits, making her way toward Nico, who was dazed and weaponless and being stalked by a pair of leopards.
Jason took up Percy's task of charging at Ephialtes while Cressida was unarmed as she stood before Otis, and she began spinning. She was on one leg as she did pirouette after pirouette and Otis copied her movements as if they were seeing who could hold out the longest.
Percy knew that she was a good dancer, but he had no idea that she could do ballet or anything like that as she flourished her leg with each turn. He also had no idea how she wasn't dizzy. She had no idea either.
Percy registered all this in a split second, but there wasn't much he could do about it. The hydra snapped at his hands. He swung and dropped, landing in a grove of painted plywood trees that sprang up from nowhere. The trees changed positions as he tried to run through them, so he slashed down the whole forest with Riptide.
"Wonderful!" Ephialtes cried, Jason recovering from where he'd been knocked to the side. He stood at his control panel about sixty feet to Percy's left. "We'll consider this a dress rehearsal. Shall I unleash the hydra onto the Spanish Steps now?" He pulled a lever, and Percy glanced behind him. The cage he had just been hanging from was now rising toward a hatch in the ceiling. In three seconds it would be gone. If Percy attacked the giant, the hydra would ravage the city.
Cursing, he threw Riptide like a boomerang. The sword wasn't designed for that, but the Celestial bronze blade sliced through the chains suspending the hydra. The cage tumbled sideways. The door broke open, and the monster spilled out—right in front of Percy.
"Oh, you are a spoilsport, Jackson!" Ephialtes called. "Very well. Battle it here, if you must, but your death won't be nearly as good without the cheering crowds."
Percy stepped forward to confront the monster—then realized he'd just thrown his weapon away. A bit of bad planning on his part. He rolled to one side as all eight hydra heads spit acid, turning the floor where he'd been standing into a steaming crater of melted stone.
"He may be a spoilsport," bellowed Cressida's voice from where she stood on top of Otis as she pulled her spear from his belly. In the midst of their pirouette-off, he'd been more concerned with winning while she'd been more concerned with distracting him. Otis had been losing his battle against dizziness when Cressida's spear shot out like a missile as it knocked him off his feet, falling backwards before she climbed atop him to twist the spear, the giant crying out as he tried to swipe at her, but she ducked. "But he's mine," she said as fire engulfed her hand. "Madness," she said to it before shooting it straight for the hydra and one of its heads began turning on the rest.
Cressida pulled her spear free before she jumped off Otis and onto the floor, her pinecone now covered in ichor as it transformed from spear form and she banged it on the ground, the sound echoing as she got the leopard's attention. Her eyes flamed, signalling to the creatures who her father was. "Serve me," she ordered, and the cats bowed as Piper visibly relaxed.
Cressida lifted her pinkies to her mouth as she let out a summoning whistle and the leopards charged at Otis who was coming for her as he clambered to his feet. He let out pained sounds as the cats clawed at him, Piper seeming a little more relieved from where she was guarding Nico.
But while Cressida's powers had distracted the hydra, the head that spat acid had bitten the head Cressida drove mad, the acid burning through its skin before its head went limp and the other seven were able to focus on their task of killing Percy.
"I know!" Ephialtes cried out happily. "We can start with explosions along the Via Labicana! We can't keep our audience waiting forever."
Percy scrambled behind the easel and turned it toward Ephialtes. He didn't have Leo's skill with machines, but he knew how to aim a weapon. The hydra barrelled toward him, blocking his view of the giant. Percy hoped this contraption would have enough firepower to take down two targets at once. He tugged at the lever. It didn't budge. All eight hydra heads loomed over him, ready to melt him into a pool of sludge. He yanked the lever again. This time the easel shook, and the weapons began to hiss. "Duck and cover!" Percy yelled, hoping his friends got the message.
Percy leapt to one side as the easel fired. The sound was like a fiesta in the middle of an exploding gunpowder factory. The hydra vaporized instantly. Unfortunately, the recoil knocked the easel sideways and sent more projectiles shooting all over the room. A chunk of the ceiling collapsed and crushed a waterwheel. More cages snapped off their chains, unleashing two zebras and a pack of hyenas. A grenade exploded over Ephialtes's head, but it only blasted him off his feet. The control board didn't even look damaged. Across the room, sandbags rained down around Piper and Nico. Piper tried to pull Nico to safety, but one of the bags caught her shoulder and knocked her down.
"Piper!" Jason cried. He ran toward her, completely forgetting about Otis, who aimed his spear at Jason's back.
"Look out!" Percy yelled.
Jason had fast reflexes. As Otis threw, Jason rolled. The point sailed over him and Jason flicked his hand, summoning a gust of wind that changed the spear's direction. It flew across the room and skewered Ephialtes through his side just as he was getting to his feet.
"Otis!" Ephialtes stumbled away from his control board, clutching the spear as he began to crumble into monster dust. "Will you please stop killing me!"
"Not my fault!"
Otis had barely finished speaking when Percy's missile-launching contraption spit out one last sphere of Roman candle fire. The fiery pink ball of death (naturally it had to be pink) hit the ceiling above Otis and exploded in a beautiful shower of light. Colourful sparks pirouetted gracefully around the giant. Then a ten-foot section of roof collapsed and crushed him flat.
Jason ran to Piper's side. She yelped when he touched her arm. Her shoulder looked unnaturally bent, but she muttered, "Fine. I'm fine."
Next to her, Nico sat up, looking around him in bewilderment as if just realizing he'd missed a battle as Cressida appeared at his side, feeding him a regular square of ambrosia from her pocket, the ziploc back that was covered in water droplets from the nymphs.
Sadly, the Giants weren't finished. Ephialtes was already re-forming, his head and shoulders rising from the mound of dust. He tugged his arms free and glowered at Percy.
Across the room, the pile of rubble shifted, and Otis busted out. His head was slightly caved in. All the firecrackers in his hair had popped, and his braids were smoking. His leotard was in tatters, which was just about the only way it could've looked less attractive on him.
"Papa! Anytime now would be good!" Cressida screamed at the ceiling again.
"Percy!" Jason shouted. "The controls!"
Percy unfroze. He found Riptide in his pocket again, uncapped his sword, and lunged for the switchboard. He slashed his blade across the top, decapitating the controls in a shower of bronze sparks. And for good measure, Cressida sent her spear flying straight through the centre of it, a small explosion of sparks coming from it.
"No!" Ephialtes wailed. "You've ruined the spectacle!" Percy turned too slowly. Ephialtes swung his spear like a bat and smacked him across the chest. He fell to his knees, the pain turning his stomach to lava.
"If anything, we made it better!" Cressida cried as she somehow launched herself onto the giant's shoulders, driving her spear right through his head as he began to crumble again.
She landed in a somersault roll before moving over to where Percy and Jason stood together, prepared to face Otis. Over by the dais, Piper was still on the floor, unable to get up. Nico was barely conscious. The giants were healing, getting stronger by the minute. And they weren't going to last much longer as exhaustion ate away at them.
Ephialtes was almost completely reformed.
"Papa," Cressida whispered to the ceiling. "Papa, please."
Ephialtes smiled apologetically. "Tired, young demigods? As I said, you cannot kill us. So I guess we're at an impasse. Oh, wait...no we're not! Because we can kill you!"
"That," Otis grumbled, picking up his fallen spear, "is the first thing sensible thing you've said all day, brother."
The giants pointed their weapons, ready to turn the trio into a demigod-kabob.
"We're not dead yet," Cressida growled.
"And we won't give up," Jason growled. "We'll cut you into pieces like Jupiter did to Saturn."
"That's right," Percy said. "You're both dead. I don't care if we have a god on our side or not."
"Well, that's a shame," said a new voice and Cressida could've cried in relief.
To their right, another platform was lowered from the ceiling. Leaning casually on a pinecone-topped staff was a man in a purple camp shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals with white socks. He raised his broad-brimmed hat, and purple fire flickered in his eyes. "I'd hate to think I made a special trip for nothing."
Bacchus had arrived.