THE PLAN WENT WRONG ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. Piper and Aimee scrambled along the ridge, trying to keep their heads down, while Leo, Jason, and Coach Hedge walked straight into the clearing.
Jason summoned his golden lance. He brandished it over his head and yelled, "Giant!"
Enceladus stopped chanting at the flames. He turned toward them and grinned, revealing fangs like a saber-toothed tiger's.
"Well," the giant rumbled. "What a nice surprise."
Aimee didn't like the sound of that.
Coach Hedge shouted, "Let the movie star go, you big ugly cupcake! Or I'm gonna plant my hoof right up your—"
"Coach," Jason said. "Shut up."
Enceladus roared with laughter. "I've forgotten how funny satyrs are. When we rule the world, I think I'll keep your kind around. You can entertain me while I eat all the other mortals."
"Is that a compliment?" Hedge frowned at Leo. "I don't think that was a compliment."
Enceladus opened his mouth wide, and his teeth began to glow.
"Scatter!" Leo yelled.
Jason and Hedge dove to the left as the giant blew fire—a furnace blast so hot even Festus would've been jealous.
Out of the corner of her eye, Aimee saw Jason rise and charge the giant. Coach Hedge ripped off his canary yellow jacket, which was now on fire, and bleated angrily. "I liked that outfit!" Then he raised his club and charged, too.
Before they could get very far, Enceladus slammed his spear against the ground. The entire mountain shook.
The shockwave sent Leo sprawling. He blinked, momentarily stunned. Through a haze of grassfire and bitter smoke, he saw Jason staggering to his feet on the other side of the clearing. Coach Hedge was knocked out cold. He'd fallen forward and hit his head on a log. His furry hindquarters were sticking straight up, with his canary yellow pants around his knees. Aimee wished she could remove that image from her memory.
The giant bellowed, "I see you, Piper McLean!" He turned and blew fire at a line of bushes to Leo's right. Piper and Aimee ran into the clearing like flushed quails, the underbrush burning behind her.
Enceladus laughed. "I'm happy you've arrived. And you brought me my prizes!"
Aimee's gut twisted. This was the moment Piper had warned them about. They'd played right into Enceladus's hands.
The giant must've read Leo's expression, because he laughed even louder. "That's right, son of Hephaestus. I didn't expect you all to stay alive this long, but it doesn't matter. By bringing you here, Piper McLean has sealed the deal. If she betrays you, I'm as good as my word. She can take her father and go. What do I care about a movie star?"
Aimee could see Piper's dad more clearly now. He wore a ragged dress shirt and torn slacks. His bare feet were caked with mud. He wasn't completely unconscious, because he lifted his head and groaned—yep, Tristan McLean all right.But he had a nasty cut down the side of his face, and he looked thin and sickly.
"Dad!" Piper yelled.
Mr. McLean blinked, trying to focus. "Pipes ... ? Where ..."
Piper drew her dagger and faced Enceladus. "Let him go!"
"Of course, dear," the giant rumbled. "Swear your loyalty to me, and we have no problem. Only these others must die."
Piper looked back and forth between Aimee and her dad.
"He'll kill you," Aimee warned. "Don't trust him!"
"Oh, come now," Enceladus bellowed. "You know I was born to fight Athena herself? Mother Gaea made each of us giants with a specific purpose, designed to fight and destroy a particular god. I was Athena's nemesis, the anti-Athena, you might say. Compared to some of my brethren—I am small! But I am clever. And I keep my bargain with you, Piper McLean. It's part of my plan!"
Jason was on his feet now, lance ready; but before he could act, Enceladus roared—a call so loud it echoed down the valley and was probably heard all the way to San Francisco.
At the edge the woods, half a dozen ogre-like creatures rose up. Aimee realized with nauseating certainty that they hadn't simply been hiding there. They'd risen straight out of the earth.
The ogres shuffled forward. They were small compared to Enceladus, about seven feet tall. Each one of them had six arms—one pair in the regular spot, then an extra pair sprouting out the top of their shoulders, and another set shooting from the sides of their rib cages. They wore only ragged leather loincloths, and even across the clearing, Aimee could smell them. Six guys who never bathed, with six armpits each.
Leo stepped toward Piper. "What—what are those?"
Her blade reflected the purple light of the bonfire. "Gegenees."
"In English?" Leo asked.
"The Earthborn," Aimee said. "Six-armed giants who fought Jason and Aimee—the first Jason and Aimee."
"Very good, my dear!" Enceladus sounded delighted. "They used to live on a miserable place in Greece called Bear Mountain. Mount Diablo is much nicer! They are lesser children of Mother Earth, but they serve their purpose. They're good with construction equipment—"
"Vroom, vroom!" one of the Earthborn bellowed, and the others took up the chant, each moving his six hands as though driving a car, as if it were some kind of weird religious ritual. "Vroom, vroom!"
"Yes, thank you, boys," Enceladus said. "They also have a score to settle with heroes. Especially anyone named Jason or Aimee."
"Yay-son! Hey-me!" the Earthborn screamed. They all picked up clumps of earth, which solidified in their hands, turning to nasty pointed stones. "Where Yay-son? Kill Yay-son! Kill Hey-me!"
Enceladus smiled. "You see, Piper, you have a choice. Save your father, or ah, try to save your friends and face certain death."
Piper stepped forward. Her eyes blazed with such rage, even the Earthborn backed away. She radiated power and beauty, but it had nothing to do with her clothes or her makeup.
"You will not take the people I love," she said. "None of them."
Her words rippled across the clearing with such force, the Earthborn muttered, "Okay. Okay, sorry," and began to retreat.
"Stand your ground, fools!" Enceladus bellowed. He snarled at Piper. "This is why we wanted you alive, my dear. You could have been so useful to us. But as you wish. Earth-born! I will show you Jason."
Aimee's heart sank. But the giant didn't point to Jason. He pointed to the other side of the bonfire, where Tristan McLean hung helpless and half conscious.
"There is Jason," Enceladus said with pleasure. "Tear him apart!"
Leo's biggest surprise: One look from Jason, and all four of them knew the game plan. When had that happened, that they could read each other so well?
Jason charged Enceladus, while Piper rushed to her father, and Leo and Aimee dashed for the tree harvester, which stood between Mr. McLean and the Earthborn.
The Earthborn were fast, but they ran like a storm spirit. Leo leaped toward the harvester from five feet away and slammed into the driver's seat,Aimee grabbed hold of the side with her sword in hand. Leo's hands flew across the controls, and the machine responded with unnatural speed—coming to life as if it knew how important this was.
"Ha!" Leo screamed, and swung the crane arm through the bonfire, toppling burning logs onto the Earthborn and spraying sparks everywhere. Two giants went down under a fiery avalanche and melted back into the earth—hopefully to stay for a while.
The other four ogres stumbled across burning logs and hot coals while Leo brought the harvester around. He smashed a button, and on the end of the crane arm the wicked rotating blades began to whir.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Piper at the stake, cutting her father free. On the other side of the clearing, Jason fought the giant, somehow managing to dodge his massive spear and blasts of fire breath. Coach Hedge was still heroically passed out with his goat tail sticking up in the air.
The whole side of the mountain would soon be ablaze. The fire wouldn't bother Leo, but if his friends got trapped up here—No. He had to act quickly.
One of the Earthborn—apparently not the most intelligent one—charged the tree harvester, and Leo swung the crane arm in his direction. As soon as the blades touched the ogre, he dissolved like wet clay and splattered all over the clearing. Most of him flew into Leo's face.Aimee laughed making him glare at her. She hadn't got even a bit of clay on her.
He spit clay out of his mouth and turned the harvester toward the three remaining Earthborn, who backed up quickly.
"Bad vroom-vroom!" one yelled.
"Yeah, that's right!" Leo yelled at them.Aimee laughed somehow managing to hang onto the side of the harvester the whole time. "You want some bad vroom-vroom? Come on!"
Unfortunately, they did. Three ogres with six arms, each throwing large, hard rocks at super speed—and Leo knew it was over. Somehow, he launched himself in a backward somersault off the harvester half a second before a boulder demolished the driver's seat. Rocks slammed into metal. By the time Leo stumbled to his feet, the harvester looked like a crushed soda can, sinking in the mud.
"Dozer!" Leo yelled.He looked around for Aimee but saw no sign of her.
The ogres were picking up more clumps of earth, but this time they were glaring in Piper's direction.
Thirty feet away, the bulldozer roared to life. It roared toward the enemy.
Just as Piper cut her father free and caught him in her arms, the giants launched their second volley of stones. The dozer swiveled in the mud, skidding to intercept, and most of the rocks slammed into its shovel. The force was so great it pushed the dozer back. Two rocks ricocheted and struck their throwers. Two more Earthborn melted into clay. Unfortunately, one rock hit the dozer's engine, sending up a cloud of oily smoke, and the dozer groaned to a stop. Another great toy broken.
Piper dragged her father below the ridge. The last Earthborn charged after her.
Leo was out of tricks, but he couldn't let that monster get to Piper. He ran forward, straight through the flames, and grabbed something—anything—from his tool belt.
"Hey, stupid!" he yelled, and threw a screwdriver at the Earthborn.
It didn't kill the ogre, but it sure got his attention. The screwdriver sank hilt-deep into the Earthborn's forehead like he was made of Play-Doh.
The Earthborn yelped in pain and skittered to a halt. He pulled out the screwdriver, turned and glared at Leo. Sadly, this last ogre looked like the biggest and nastiest of the bunch. Gaea had really gone all out creating him—with extra muscle upgrades, deluxe ugly face, the whole package.
Oh, great, Leo thought. I've made a friend.
"You die!" the Earthborn roared. "Friend of Yay-son dies!"
The ogre scooped up handfuls of dirt, which immediately hardened into rock cannonballs.
Leo's mind went blank. He reached into his tool belt, but he couldn't think of anything that would help. He was supposed to be clever—but he couldn't craft or build or tinker his way out of this one.
Fine, he thought. I'll go out blaze-of-glory style.
He burst into flames, yelled, "Hephaestus!" and charged at the ogre barehanded.
He never got there.
A blur of black flashed behind the ogre. A gleaming black blade sliced up one side of the Earthborn and down the other.
Six large arms dropped to the ground, boulders rolling out of their useless hands. The Earthborn looked down, very surprised. He mumbled, "Arms go bye-bye."
Then he melted into the ground.
Aimee stood there, breathing hard, her sword covered with clay. Piper and her dad sat at the ridge, her dad dazed and wounded, but still alive.
Aimee's expression was ferocious—almost crazy, like a cornered animal. Leo was glad she was on his side.
"Nobody hurts my friends," she said, and with a sudden warm feeling, Leo realized she was talking about him. Then she yelled, "Come on!"
Leo saw that the battle wasn't over. Jason was still fighting the giant Enceladus. Aimee ran forward out of Leo's reach just as the Earthborn started to reformed.
"JUST STAY DEAD YOU STUPID CLUMPS OF EARTH!!"