riley doesn't think pigs should fly

of course, i had to slip back into a vision.

rebecca grumbled to herself as she sat on a bench. she was in some sort of large office — i wasn't exactly sure. she unclipped her heels and muttered a bunch of things about how boys were ridiculous.

i couldn't agree with her any more.

"c'mon," buck's voice came as he walked towards steve (scrawny again). "you're kind of missing the point of a double date. we're taking the girls dancing."

rebecca's mood brightened a little as she saw the two of them. she got up and walked to them, shoving her heels in her brother's chest. he rolled his eyes slightly, but he held them for her.

"you go ahead," steve told him. "i'll catch up with you."

buck was in a military uniform and he sighed, "you're really gonna do this again."

"stop scolding him," rebecca hit her brother lightly.

"aren't you supposed to be with your date?" her brother asked.

"yes, well, phillip's a little prick," rebecca crossed her arms over her chest.

"what did he do?" immediately both boys were in overprotective older brother mode.

rebecca waved them off, but she had a mischevious glint in her eyes, "don't worry dear brothers of mine. i already took care of it."

buck pursed his lips, but steve shook his head fondly, "atta girl."

"oh, don't think you're off the hook, steve," buck said to him.

"oh come on," steve shrugged. "it's a fair. i'm gonna try my luck."

"as who? steve from ohio?" buck asked. "they'll catch you. or worse, they'll actually take you."

"look, i know you don't think i can do this," steve started.

"that's not what he's trying to say," rebecca cut into their argument.

"this isn't a back alley, steve. it's war!" buck said.

"i know it's a war. you don't have to tell me."

"why are you so keen to fight? there are so many important jobs—"

"what am i gonna do? collect scrap metal—"

"—yes!—"

"—in my little red wagon—"

"why not?"

"i'm not gonna sit in a factory, bucky."

i raised an eyebrow. 'bucky'. usually it was buck.

"i don't—"

"bucky, come on!" steve said loudly. "there are men laying down their lives. i got no right to do any less than them. that's what you don't understand. this isn't about me."

"right. cause you got nothing to prove."

rebecca smacked her brother again.

he held out her heels threateningly, "you wanna hold them?"

"oh shut it," she placed her hands on her hips. "you're gonna hold them, no matter who's side i take in this. and i'm not taking sides. all i'm saying is th—"

"hey, sarge!" another lady — buck(y)'s date, i guess — called. "are we going dancing?"

buck raised an eyebrow towards rebecca, who shook her head. "i'm gonna go home. my feet hurt."

"aw, come on," buck told her. "for me."

rebecca rolled her eyes, but she had a small smile on her face. "alright, ya great big oaf. i'll come dancing with you."

he grinned at her before he turned back to his date and answered, "yes, we are."

he looked back at steve, "don't do anything stupid until i get back."

steve smiled, "how can i? you're taking all the stupid with you."

"punk."

"jerk."

rebecca smiled, and just like that, the two of them were okay again.

i blinked a few times.

"reeet!" 

the squeal echoed throughout the streets of manhattan. demigods and monsters froze in terror.

grover shot percy and i a panicked look. "why does that sound like... it can't be!" 

i knew what he was thinking. two years ago we'd gotten a 'gift' from pan — a huge boar that carriedus across the southwest (after it tried to kill us). the boar had a similar squeal, but what we were hearing now seemed higher pitched, shriller, almost like if the boar had an angry girlfriend. 

"reeeeet!"

a huge pink creature soared over the reservoir — a macy's thanksgiving day parade nightmare blimp with wings. 

"a sow!" annabeth cried. "take cover!" 

the demigods scattered as the winged lady pig swooped down. her wings were pink like a flamingo's, which matched her skin beautifully, but it was hard to think of her as cute when her hooves slammed into the ground, barely missing alith watson. the pig stomped around and tore down half an acre of trees, belching a cloud of noxious gas. then it took off again, circling around for another strike. 

"don't tell me that thing is from greek mythology," percy complained. 

"okay!" i yelled sarcastically. "i won't tell you!"

"afraid so," annabeth said, ignoring my sarcasm. "the clazmonian sow. it terrorized greek towns back in the day." 

"let me guess," percy started. "hercules beat it." 

"actually," i clicked my tongue, "no hero has ever beaten it." 

"perfect," percy muttered. 

"yup," i nodded. "you get to be the first."

percy grabbed a grappling hook from one of annabeth's siblings. "that thing's gotta go. i'll take care of it. you guys hold the rest of the army."

"but percy," grover started, shifting his grip on me, "what if we can't?"

percy looked at us, and i could see how guilty he felt.

"retreat if you need to," he said, "i'll be back as soon as i can."

and with that, he flew away on the flying pig.

the fight was a blur.

as soon as percy left, the monsters didn't wait. they attacked us full force, taking demigods, hunters, and nature spirits down.

i used my powers to fight, since i couldn't use my dagger unless we were under close proximity and i needed both arms to shoot a bow.

vines of my signature pale pink energy crawled up my arms and wrapped around my left shoulder, giving me some movement. it still hurt, but not as bad as it would be without the energy.

i heard another belch from the sow in the distance. i could feel my blue eyes flash pink briefly as i worried for percy's safety.

we backed up, and i found myself at the park avenue tunnel, aurora and drew on either side of me.

a hyperborean giant stomped forward and the three of us fought together, just like all of those training sessions. i placed energy platforms in the air, and aurora leaped from one to the other, landing on the giant's head. she stabbed her sword downward and the giant froze. his skin turned blue and he cracked like ice.

unfortunately, we didn't have time to celebrate. two of his brothers came at us.

aurora and i kept them occupied while drew snuck up the back. i laced the blade of her sword with energy and she stabbed on the giants in the back, him also breaking apart like before.

the last giant — now outraged — came at us.

i lifted my right arm in front of me, and an energy wall shot up from the ground in front of us. the frost giant stumbled back and looked at me in surprise. 

he tried to speak something, but he was a giant, so it sounded more like, "riaayygee."

he stepped back, as if he wasn't going to fight us anymore.

but then percy fell out of the sky — okay, he jumped off of blackjack — and landed on the giant's head. he slid down, his shield bonking the giant on the nose. blue blood dripped from his probably broken nose.

the giant roared and blew a blast of icy mist where percy stood a seconds ago.

"hey ugly!" i yelled.

the giant turned to face me, and percy stabbed him in the back of the knee. the giant turned to ice, and like the other two before him, cracked apart.

"thanks," i said to him. "the pig?"

"pork chops," percy confirmed. "you were talking to the giant right?"

"yeah," i assured him. i flexed my shoulder, and winced as a stabbing pain shot up my arm. i waved off percy's concerned expression, "i'm fine, percy. besides, we got more monsters to fight."

the next hour was a blur.

percy was a walking storm — literally, and physically. he took on legions of empousai, taking down telkhines and draconae. 

all in all, i was glad he was on our side.

i wrapped my arm in energy vines and fought using my powers to give me some movement. no matter how many monsters i disintegrated, how many hellhounds i decapitated, more came to take their place. 

too many campers lay dead. too many were missing.

i tried turning invisible, but the energy controlling my arm would drop, leaving me without room to move. annabeth put her cap on, and whenever a monster disintegrated with a surprised look on it's face, i knew she'd been there.

we continued backing up, foot by foot, until we were only a block away from the empire state building in all direction. 

at one point grover was next to me, bonking snake women over the head. then it was thalia, with her shield. then it was drew charmspeaking the monsters against each other. then it was aurora, scaring the crap outta them before she sliced through them. draco was there at one point, throwing a knives at the empousai. then there was theo, slicing three or four monsters down in one swing using his witchcraft.

the entire time, percy was beside me.

we fought side by side — though percy did a lot more of the fighting. i laced his sword with energy vines, like how i did at the smithsonian, and he brought down legions of monsters in one strike.

but it still wasn't enough.

"hold your lines!" cynthia allen called from somewhere to my left.

that was the problem. there were too few of us to hold anything.

the entrance to olympus was twenty feet behind us. a ring of brave demigods, hunters, and nature spirits guarded the doors. 

behind the enemy troops, a few blocks to the east, a bright light began to shine. at first i wondered why the sunrise was so early. then i realized kronos was riding toward us on a golden chariot. a dozen laistrygonian giants bore torches before him. two hyperboreans carried his black-and-purple banners. 

the titan lord looked fresh and rested, his powers at full strength. he was taking his time advancing, letting percy and the rest of us wear ourselves down. 

annabeth appeared next to us. "we have to fall back to the doorway. hold it at all costs!"

percy and i nodded in agreement. before percy could sound a retreat, a sound cut through the battlefield.

a chorus of horns answered from all around us, echoing off the buildings of manhattan. 

my first thought was thalia, but she shook her head. 

"not the hunters," she assured us. "we're all here." 

"then who?" 

the horns got louder. i couldn't tell where they were coming from because of the echo, but it sounded like an entire army was approaching. 

i was afraid it might be more enemies, but kronos's forces looked as confused as we were. giants lowered their clubs. dracaenae hissed. even kronos's honor guard looked uneasy. 

then, to our left, a hundred monsters cried out at once. kronos's entire northern flank surged forward. i thought we were doomed, but they didn't attack. they ran straight past us and crashed into their southern allies.

a new blast of horns shattered the night. the air shimmered. in a blur of movement, an entire cavalry appeared as if dropping out of light speed.

"yeah, baby!" a voice wailed. "party!"

a shower of arrows arced over our heads and slammed into the enemy, vaporizing hundreds of demons. but these weren't regular arrows. they made whizzy sounds as they flew, like wheeee! some had pinwheels attached to them. others had boxing gloves rather than points. 

my personal favorite had an american flag tied to the end.

"centaur america!" i exclaimed. 

the party pony army exploded into our midst in a riot of colors: tie-dyed shirts, rainbow afro wigs, oversize sunglasses, and war-painted faces. some had slogans scrawled across their flanks like horsez pwn or kronos sux. hundreds of them filled the entire block. 

my brain couldn't process everything i saw, but I knew if i were the enemy, i'd be running.

a familiar red, white, and blue centaur bounded past me. steve looked exactly like how i remembered, all decked out captain america style.

"riley!!" he grinned wickedly as he saw me. "i can't believe you didn't tell me your dad was a superhero."

"to be fair, a lot has happened since that year," i told him.

"all's forgiven... if you can get me an autograph from captain america," he nudged me.

my jaw dropped, "and how do you expect me to do that?"

"that's up to you."

"would you take an all-you-can-eat card from 'randy's donut's' instead?" i asked, hopefully.

centaur america thought about it, before shrugging, "i'll take the donuts."

"dude!" a centaur yelled. "talk later. waste monsters now!" 

he locked and loaded a double-barrel paint gun and blasted an enemy hellhound bright pink. the paint must've been mixed with celestial bronze dust or something, because as soon as it splattered the hellhound, the monster yelped and dissolved into a pink-and-black puddle.

i made a mental note to add paintball gun to the list of deadly weapons.

"this is insane," aurora muttered.

"it's the magic of the centaurs," i grinned.

"party ponies!!'" a centaur yelled. "south florida!!!" 

somewhere across the battlefield, a twangy voice yelled back, "heart of texas chapter!" 

"hawaii owns your faces!" a third one shouted.

it was beautiful.

the entire titan army turned and fled, pushed back by a flood of paintballs, arrows, swords, and nerf baseball bats. the centaurs trampled everything in their path. 

"stop running, you fools!" kronos yelled. "stand and ackk!"

that last part was because a panicked hyperborean giant stumbled backward and sat on top of him. the lord of time disappeared under a giant blue butt. 

we pushed them for several blocks until chiron yelled, "hold! on your promise, hold!" 

it wasn't easy, but eventually the order got relayed up and down the ranks of centaurs, and they started to pull back, letting the enemy flee. 

"chiron's smart," i muttered to percy, as i realized what he was doing. "if we pursue, we'll get too spread out. we need to regroup." 

"but the enemy—" 

"they're not defeated," i nodded. "but the dawn is coming. at least we've bought some time."

he nodded. we watched as the last of the telkhines scuttled away, before heading back to the empire state building.

we set up a two-block perimeter, with a command tent at the empire state building. 

drew had been injured in the last fight, and i needed to check on her. thankfully, it wasn't bad, nothing like my stab wound. a little bit of nectar and ambrosia had healed her quite quickly. annalin offered to watch her while i take a walk.

i went outside to take a breather when i noticed percy and annabeth. they looked like they were in the middle of an argument. 

i groaned slightly, but made my way over to stop them. 

"hey, hey," i said, trying to get them to stop arguing.

percy blinked twice and stared at me. 

i frowned, "what?"

"uh, nothing."

percy looked down the street and he seemed to be lost in thought. all of a sudden, he bolted down the street.

annabeth and i shared confused glances.

"percy!" i called after him. "where are you going?"

he stopped outside of a blue prius, and i realized what happened. percy's step-dad, paul, was in the driver's seat, and his mom was knocked out next to him.

"they... they must've seen those blue lights in the sky." percy rattled the doors but they were locked. "i need to get them out." 

"percy," i said gently. 

"i can't leave them here!" percy snapped. he pounded on the windshield as if he could break through. "i have to move them. i have to—" 

"percy, just... just hold on." annabeth waved to chiron, who was talking to some centaurs down the block. "we can push the car to a side street, all right? they're going to be fine." 

percy's hands trembled. i took them in my own, and forced him to look at me.

"they're going to be okay," i allowed charmspeak to seep into my voice. i felt a little bad, but percy needed it right now. "we're gonna move them. they're not gonna get hurt."

percy didn't respond verbally, but his posture relaxed.

chiron galloped over. "what's... oh dear. i see." 

"they were coming to find me," percy said. his voice sounded a little calmer, but i could still sense his worry. "my mom must've sensed something was wrong." 

"most likely," chiron said. "but, percy, they will be fine. the best thing we can do for them is stay focused on our job." 

percy focused on something in the backseat. "no way," he muttered.

i peered through the window. seat-belted behind percy's mother was a black-and-white greek jar about three feet tall. Its lid was wrapped in a leather harness. 

annabeth pressed her hand to the window. "that's impossible! i thought you left that at the plaza." 

"locked in a vault," percy agreed. 

chiron saw the jar and his eyes widened. "that isn't— " 

"pandora's jar." percy told him about his meeting with prometheus. 

"then the jar is yours," chiron said grimly. "it will follow you and tempt you to open it, no matter where you leave it. it will appear when you are weakest."

percy angrily drew riptide and cut through the driver's side window like it was made of plastic wrap.

"we'll put the car in neutral," he said. "push them out of the way. and take that stupid jar to olympus." 

chiron nodded. "a good plan. put, percy..." 

whatever he was going to say, he faltered. 

a mechanical drumbeat grew loud in the distance — the chop-chop-chop of a helicopter. on a normal monday morning in new york, this would've been no big deal, but after two days of silence, a mortal helicopter was the oddest thing i'd ever heard.

a few blocks east, the monster army shouted and jeered as the helicopter came into view. it was a civilian model painted dark red, with a bright green 'de' logo on the side. the words under the logo were too small to read, but i knew what they said: 'dare enterprises'. 

i clenched my jaw, but couldn't find my voice.

"what is she doing here?" annabeth demanded. 

"how did she even get through the barrier?" i muttered.

"who?" chiron looked confused. "what mortal would be insane enough—" 

suddenly the helicopter pitched forward. 

"the morpheus enchantment!" chiron said. "the foolish mortal pilot is asleep."

i watched in horror as the helicopter careened sideways, falling toward a row of office buildings. even if it didn't crash, the gods of the air would probably swat it out of the sky for coming near the empire state building. 

of course, my morals wouldn't let me watch her fall to her death. i whistled loudly and guido and rio the pegasi swooped in outta nowhere.

"come on, percy," i growled. "we have to save your friend." 

i could hear the redhead screaming.

i urged rio faster.

"ideas?" percy asked.

"you're going to have to take rio and get out," i told him. "and tell guido to leave too."

annabeth and i were on the same page, so i didn't need to communicate the plan to her.

"what are you going to do?"

i didn't respond. instead, i sent rio into a nosedive. we passed so close to the rotors that i could feel the force of the blades whipping through my hair.

i grabbed the door of the helicopter, and swung myself inside (i did it with a busted arm, mind you).

annabeth was already there, fumbling with the controls. rachel sat in her seat — seatbelt off — and continued screaming.

"how do you fly this thing?" annabeth yelled.

"i don't know!" i exclaimed.

"don't you own one?"

"actually, i own twelve!"

"and you don't know how to fly one?!"

"does she?" i jerked my head towards rachel.

annabeth scowled before turning back to the controls. i built energy platforms below the helicopter, keeping it up while annabeth figured out how to fly it. we were a second away from crashing into a building when annabeth pulled some lever. the helicopter thudded to a stop on top of stark towers.

percy stood at the rooftop, waiting for us.

"careful," i told him nonchalantly as i stepped out. "that part of the roof folds in."

percy cautiously stepped away from it.

he stared at annabeth and i in awe, "i didn't know you could fly a helicopter."

"it was all annabeth," i told him.

she shrugged, "my dad's crazy into aviation. and daedalus had some notes. i gave it my best shot."

"you saved my life," rachel said. "both of you."

i fiddled with the ring on my thumb, "yeah, well let's not make a habit out of it. what are you even doing here? this is a war, not some kitty party for you to fly into."

"i — i had to be here," she said. "i knew percy was in trouble."

"got that right," annabeth grumbled. "now if you'll excuse me, i got some injured friends i have to tend to. glad you could stop by, rachel."

i pursed my lips and followed her out. before i left, i turned back to the two of them, "you're not gonna wanna stay up here too long. J.A.R.V.I.S. may not be able to contact the outside worlds, but he's still running his protocols. which includes how to dispose of uninvited visitors."

and with that, i left the two of them.

REY WRITES !

thanks for reading !

thoughts?

comments?

headcanons?

theories?