Chapter 8

After lot of arguing, shouting, tantrums and clawing (Percy didn't knew that 8 old goddesses can have such sharp nails nor they're so good at clawing faces), they finally decided to seek out Nereus, the old man of the sea. Sensing the emergency, Percy mist travelled with the goddess to the bay of San Francisco area. Aer shrouded him in a thick layer of mist and using stealth courtesy a Hunter of Artemis, he managed to sneak upon the old man unaware. After fighting futilely for a while, the rather evil Santa Clauss look alike gave up.

"Tell me how I can save Hera!" Percy asked in a menacing tone but Nereus gave him a rather toothy grin and answered "Go to mount Diablo" and with a poof he vanished.

"Gahh! I hate immortals" he growled then looking bat Aer's crestfallen look added hastily, "Except for you of course Aer. You're my friend."

So without further ado they the long hike to mount Diablo, partly because Percy didn't had any money for taxi and Aer refused to help, still miffed about his last comment and partly because he wasn't anxious to face whatever was awaiting him at that accursed peak. He was still trying to calm himself after the Kyrios incident.

The road was hard-packed dirt. No reason at all it should have been soft, but already Percy's shoes were starting to sink. Gaea was messing with them. Drifting across the summit was a plume of smoke. From a distance, Percy had thought it was a cloud, but it wasn't. Something was burning there. By the time Percy reached the summit fighting was already at full force. Percy saw a haggard looking man tied and bleeding profusely and pretty girl trying to free him. A boy with an elven face was fighting what looked like trolls made up of stones. "The earthborn" Aer whispered in awe. A young blonde boy was fighting what looked like a huge giant so horrible that Percy had to force himself to look at him again. To start with, he was thirty feet tall—easily as tall as the treetops. From the waist up, the giant appeared humanoid, his muscular chest clad in bronze armor, decorated with flame designs. His arms were completely ripped. Each of his biceps was bigger than Aer. His skin was bronze but sooty with ash. His face was crudely shaped, like a half-finished clay figure, but his eyes glowed white, and his hair was matted in shaggy dreadlocks down to his shoulders, braided with bones.

From the waist down, he was even more terrifying. His legs were scaly green, with claws instead of feet—like the forelegs of a dragon. In his hand, he held a spear the size of a flagpole. Percy commended the boy for his courage to fight that monster but he was clearly struggling to hold his own. Meanwhile, the elven boy and the pretty girl were having problems of their own. Percy debated with himself for a while then summoned his bow and tossed it to Aer and said "Help them!" With that, he charged at the giant.

Hearing his cry, the giant swatted the blond boy aside and prepared his spear. As soon as he reached the giant, Percy hit a baseball slide, summoning his sword and slashed with all his might at the giant's ankle. With a roar that echoed throughout the San Francisco valley, the giant fell to his knees. Without losing a moment, Percy summoned his shield and bashed it at the giant's head with all his might and kept bashing it repeatedly till a massive pool of golden ichor formed at his feet. Yelling in pain, the giant swung his arms and Percy crashed into the girl. "Sorry" he said hastily and rushed back into the fight. The blond boy meanwhile had recovered from his fall and was battling the giant with a golden javelin. Percy watched as the giant swung his massive spear and snapped the javelin in half causing a huge shockwave to erupt and push both the warriors apart. Taking his cue, Percy slashed at the giant legs from behind and crashed his shield on his knee cap. The giant roared in pain. Percy went into full battle mode and attacked the giant relentlessly as the blond boy watched him in awe. The giant desperately lunged at him. Percy dodged and the giant fell upon the girl standing behind Percy. The giant yelled in triumph and was about to crush the girl when the blond boy climbed the giant's back and stabbed him with his broken javelin. As soon as he stabbed him, a huge lightning bolt stuck the giant and he began to disintegrate. He fixed me and the blond boy with a look of hatred. "You've won nothing, demigods. My brothers are rising, and they are ten times as strong as I. We will destroy the god sat their roots! You will die, and Olympus will die with—" before he could finish, Percy swung his sword. There was a brief flash of light and the giant vanished. The blond boy rushed immediately to the girl who had passed out earlier and for the moment Percy was alone.

He stared at his blade in awe and whispered, "You deserve a name. You shall aid me in my quest to save mankind and rebel against the traitors and monsters who seek to destroy it. I shall name thee REBELLION." The blade glowed dark red for a moment and blood red words appeared on the blade, marking its name in the history, and REBELLION shone with a deadly red gleam in the hand of its master. Percy was interrupted in his thoughts as he watched the blonde boy, the pretty girl with kaleidoscopic eyes, and the boy with the elven face approached him. He saw Aer shuffling closer to him, clutching the bow tightly as if she expected to use it at any moment. Without taking his gaze from the approaching figures, Percy whispered to Aer from the corner of his mouth,

"Use the mist to hide yours and mine features. And let me do the talking."

The blond boy reached him first, taking out his hand, said "Hi, my name is Jason Grace. She is Piper Mclean" he said pointing to the pretty girl who waved awkwardly at him, "and the annoying boy is Leo Valdez." He said pointing to the elven boy who glared at his friend in response. Percy studied each of them carefully. He didn't remember seeing any of them at the camp, which meant they were new. Coming to a silent decision he shook Jason's hand replied,

"My name is…..Hunter. And this is my little sister Arya". Jason smiled at Aer and then looking at me gravely said,

"Look, you don't really know us but…..we are on a quest to save Hera, queen of heavens and we could use all the help we get. Will you help us?"

Ignoring Piper's pleading expression Percy looked at Aer. Whatever may happen, they were together into this and he didn't want to force his decisions on Aer. Aer looked at Percy's serious expression and realized that Percy was actually giving her an option. No one has ever asked her for her opinion in her entire immortal life. True, Aer was scared of Hera, but she didn't want to disappoint Percy, so she nodded. Percy relaxed. Then facing Jason, who watched their exchange quizzingly, he nodded his assent, "yes. We will help you".