Dragons and Damsels

Dragons and Damsels was the first Percy Jackson fan-fiction I ever wrote. It was originally posted on fanfiction.com

Saturday, September 5th, 2009, Guggenheim, New York
Standing outside of the Guggenheim museum, Theo held the form of an six foot five human male, with blond hair exploding upwards from his head. Either it was held up by magic of he was putting cement in his hair instead of gel. He was wore black leather pants, black leather boots and a black leather jacket. There was a picture on the back of his jacket, a of a dragons head, Theo's real head, and above the picture was the word "Thespian".

He looked like a Dragonball Z character that joined a motorcycle gang.

He would have felt alright attacking a demigod on the street looking like this, if he was at a bar or a club or the mall; he could have made this look work. But here it was just embarrassing. He'd been waiting for thirty minutes, standing real still hoping people would ignore him. Three times already he'd been mistaken for one of the museums' infamously bizarre pieces of artwork.

His minions Izzy, Cole, Nimrod, and Draco weren't here yet. Once they arrived he'd be able to put his plan into action.

Soon Theo spotted his targets half a street away: a blond girl wearing a camp T-shirt and denim shorts. A redhead girl was walking next to her. The blondie looked like a perfect California bimbo except for her analytical grey eyes that looked like they were scanning instead of merely seeing. Theo was intimidated at first but he quickly swallowed the feeling. She's just a girl, he told himself.

The redhead walking next to the grey-eyed blondie wasn't intimidating; he didn't see her until they got closer to the museum. From the way she smelled, Theo guessed she wasn't even a demigod. She wore a red jacket and jeans, but somebody (maybe a younger brother or sister) had drawn on them with colored crayon.

Theo was tempted to throw off his human disguise and try to capture the girls himself but reasoned that if the girls saw him they would run away, and he'd have to chase them through the city. Since he didn't have any backup yet they might escape from him. He couldn't take that risk.

This was part of his grand plan to defeat Perseus Jackson. The blond California bimbo was a demigod named Annabeth Chase, who happened to be his current girlfriend. The redhead was named Rachel Dare, she was Percy's former crush and if rumors were to be believed the new camp oracle.

As soon as Annabeth set foot on the museum sidewalk she froze in terror, and for a moment Theo was also scared because he thought she had spotted him. Then he saw the giant metallic spider sculpture on the corner of the sidewalk

"It's not real" Rachel reminded Annabeth. "You don't know that it might be an a giant robot spider; one of Hephaestus's automatons."

Annabeth didn't respond at first; she just stared at the spider.

Annabeth quickly glanced down at her pocket, and pulled out a hand-grip exercisor, Theo guessed it was probably a weapon in disguise, then Annabeth resumed her staring contest with the statue, he hands fingers steadied on the hand-grip exercisor like the trigger of a gun.

Theo would have used this distraction to capture Annabeth and Rachel then and there, but then again he didn't want them to have the chance to run away.

"What is wrong with you?"

"I could have sworn it moved!"

"Annabeth calm down."

Rachel pried the hand-grip exercisor from her hand and forced Annabeth to look away from the spider and make eye contact with her.

For a moment Annabeth looked reluctant then she took a deep breath and calmed down. For a moment she looked almost relaxed then, another second later calmness vanished off her face completely.

"Rachel, give me back my weapon."

"Just promise you won't destroy any priceless pieces of art."

"Of course, now hand it over."

For a whole two minutes Rachel not only got the chance to be the mature one she also got the chance to tell Annabeth what to do. This went to her head immediately.

"Rachel, I said I won't destroy anything now give me back my weapon" "Not until you say I'm prettier than you" then Annabeth glared at Rachel until she handed back the hand-grip exercisor.

The two girls went inside the building.

Theo's brothers at arms arrived a few minutes later. Cole, Izzy, Nimrod and Draco were all dressed the same as Theo, except they had the words "Colchian" "Ismenian" "Nemean" and "Gigantomachian" respectively on their jackets above their dragon heads. They weren't as big, tall or strong as Theo, they also didn't have giant hair.

They flew in in dragon form, then changed into humans in midair and dropped several yards to land on their feet.

Cole started talking the moment his feet hit the ground. "You said something on the phone about a plan to kill Percy Jackson, but didn't tell us what it was!"

"Is in there should we torch the place?" asked Izzy; Izzy was neither sweet nor innocent but his voice was both. When he asked if he could burn the building, he sounded like a boy about to open a Christmas present.

"Here's the plan: Percy's girlfriend and ex-crush are in the Guggenheim museum. We just have to go in and kidnap them. Then, the trap is sprung when Percy is challenged to rescue the girls he loves. That part should be easy; it's five of us against two girls, and one isn't even a demigod."

"Here's what I need from each of you..."

The girls were both standing in the center of the Rotunda talking about the art.

Nimrod took positions on the right side of the girls, Cole on the left, and Izzy behind them. Draco took the front. Theo guarded the entrance making sure no new demigods were going to come in and rescue them.

Suspended above their heads was a floating art gallery that included a dinosaur skeleton, paintings, stuffed horses, sculptures of people, and pieces of furniture. All of this "stuff" was hanging from a big metal platform that was itself hanging from the ceiling by ten metal wires.

The whole thing looked like a weird giant chandelier. The girls were too busy talking about it to notice they were being surrounded.

Draco hated having to listen to women talk but he had to to make sure they hadn't noticed him. So far they just going on about the oversized arts and crafts project hanging over their heads.

"It's called "all". Its a work of art by an Italian artist named Maurizio Cattelean. I read somewhere that this whole art gallery is supposed to be a piece of satire on all the contradictions he noticed in modern society" explained Rachel.

"To me it just looks like a collection of objects suspended from the ceiling. It doesn't make any sense at all. Like that sculpture of Mr Clean with a giant head what's that supposed to be about? Or what about that elephant being underneath a white sheet? Or what about that boy sitting at the desk with his pencils stabbed through his hand pinning them to the desk?" Annabeth replied.

"That's the beauty of it, every piece of art in "All" is open to multiple interpretations."

Gods, Draco really hated listening to women talk; they never had anything interesting or important to say. The dragons roles were very simple, Draco just had to walk up and grab the blond girl.

If the redhead tried to help her friend escape, then Izzy Cole and Nimrod would close in on her from all sides, if she tried to run in any direction Draco's friends would grab the redhead.

Fortunately, Draco didn't even have to be stealthy. The girls were so totally caught up in their conversation about abstract art they didn't notice him. Mortals were staying clear of them both so Draco didn't even have to go around anybody to get to them. This couldn't have been any easier!

"It's just like the first time my dad read me Alice in Wonderland and I stayed up for three days trying to figure out how a raven is like a writing..."

Then the redhead interrupted her friends rant "Annabeth, scaly monster at 12 o clock"

Wait could this girl actually...He didn't finish this thought because Annabeth spun around like a ninja chopped him in the face, planted her foot down on his left leg then kicked him in the chest, knocking him down.

The redhead took the hand of Annabeth and rushed towards the Rotunda elevator. The girls assumed fighting stances as they waited for the elevator to come.

Draco rushed at Annabeth; this time his speed caught her by suprise, and he was able to pin her against the elevator doors with his arm to her throat.

He increased his size by throwing off his human form; his wings unfolded from his back-magically not ripping through his jacket-his skin turned scaly, and a tail extended out of the back of his pants.

His four comrades started breathing fire, and suddenly people ran out of the building. Security guards started gathering, so Izzy, Cole, and Nimrod went off to fight them.

Draco laughed as Annabeth struggled to breath.

The redhead was obviously clear sighted; why hadn't Theo told them about that? It didn't matter, she'd played the only card by revealing their true forms. Now there was no way she could be a threat.

The elevator came 2 seconds later, and the blondie did a somersault backwards inside into the elevator. Draco's enlarged body couldn't fit inside but he reached in with his arm to grab her. She did her best to avoid him; she took out a knife and tried to stab his hand but his scales were too thick.

He heard the redhead whistle. Maybe she thought she could trick him into chasing her and give her friend a chance to escape. He turned to shoot a blast of fire at her when a blue plastic comb hit him in the eye. The pain distracted him just long enough that the redhead could slip past him and hit the top floor button on the elevator.

Draco shrank back to human form to follow them inside but as soon as the doors closed he wished he hadn't. The girls overwhelmed him, both of them punhing him in the face. He staggered back against the metal doors.

Draco blasted fire out of his mouth and both the girls hit the floor. This made Draco feel really great; it felt like they were kneeling before him. But the moment the blond girl hit the floor she bounced right off of it at him and pierced his throat with her dagger.

The girls both clamped their hands over their ears, as Draco died he released a roar that could be heard in every part of the building.

Rachel and Annabeth both gasped for air when they finally got out of the elevator on the 6th floor. They'd spent the remainder of their ride after Draco was gone trapped in an elevator that smelled of sulfur and smoke. They both covered their faces with their shirts.

When the lizard disintegrated his clothes stayed behind. There was steam coming off of them. Usually when monsters died a part of them stayed behind; Annabeth called it "spoils of war".

While they were trapped in the smelly elevator Annabeth explained the dragons name was Draco and he was killed by Annabeth's mom in a big battle called the Gigantomachy.

Rachel was caught between feeling scared for her life, angry that their trip was ruined, and feeling relieved that now Annabeth and her were doing something aside from arguing about art styles.

There wasn't an annex on floor 6, just the elevators and the gift shop. The Rotunda ramp went one more floor upwards to Annex 7. The Rotunda was completely empty. A bunch of mortals were hold up inside of the gift shop, two security guards watching the door kept signaling the girls to come inside, promising they'd be safe from danger.

Rachel knew better.

"Do you have a plan yet?"

"Almost"

Rachel and Annabeth peaked over the ledge and saw dragons at the bottom. This time they weren't just big humanoid lizard creatures with wings and a tail; these looked like real dragons the kind Rachel had seen in storybooks. The first beast had leaf green scales, looked 32 feet long with a 24 foot wingspan. The second one had golden orange scales, and looked 3/4rth the size of the first dragon. The only way both of them could fit inside the Rotunda was to curl up.

The green dragon's tail completely blocked the exit. Comically, the green dragon couldn't lift its head without hitting "All".

One of the dragons was coming up the ramp still in human form he'd be there any minute. Annabeth yanked Rachel away from the edge and let her down the ramp one floor to Annex 5.

On Annex 5, Rachel saw a bunch of scared mortals. Most of them were hiding behind statues or herded together in corners. A handful of security personal were going from one area to another assuring the visitors that everything would be alright.

Apparently the security up here believed that the security down there was doing battle against a bunch of terrorists. The guards claimed that order would be restored any minute and everybody could go back to appreciating the museums artwork. All anyone had to do was sit tight.

These people couldn't see through the mist, even though they were frightened they weren't anywhere near as scared as they should have been. Rachel wasn't sure wheather to envy them or pity them.

"Monsters don't hurt humans right?" Rachel wasn't sure if she was talking about herself or about all the people around her.

"Most monsters don't have any regard for human life one way or the other. They rarely hunt mortals or go out of the way to cause them harm but if any mortals get in their way their just collateral damage."

"If we lose ourselves in a crowd, we put the crowd in danger. The longer this fight goes on the more likely it is that innocents will die."

"Do you have a plan now?"

"Yes but your not gonna like it..."

Things were not going according to plan. When Nimrod got to floor 6 he found the elevator still open, the girls gone, and all that was inside was Draco's clothes smelling of sulfur and smoke and covered in monster dust.

It shouldn't have surprised Nimrod; Draco was an idiot-of course he got himself killed by the girls.

Nimrod stood over the edge and yelled down to his brothers at arms:

"DRACO IS DEAD AND THE GIRLS ARE GONE"

"DONT JUST STAND THERE! FIND THEM AND BRING THEM HERE!, Cole, Izzy search this place from top to bottom. I'll stay here and guard the exit so they can't get out." Theo shouted back.

Nimrod doubled back and followed his nose; he went down to Annex 5 where the smell was weak but definitely demigod. He just couldn't pinpoint exactly where.

Guards started shooting at him as soon as he set foot inside of Annex 5. A few bullets hit him in the head but they weren't celestial bronze so there wasn't any blood and it all healed in less than a minute.

One guard shot a tazer gun at him. He caught the electrode out of the air as it was flying at him, then pulled on it, yanking the gun out of the guards hands.

The guards urged everybody to retreat backwards against the wall, and most of them did except for one girl with red hair: his target Rachel Dare.

Nimrod charged at her throwing off his human form, growing larger when something something hit him in the throat causing him to slip off of his feet and hit the ground hard.

He stood back up; that blow had stopped his transformation halfway and forced him back into human form.

As soon as he got back up Nimrod began his transformation again and shouted, "How did you do that and where is your friend hiding?"

"I am the Oracle of Delphi, as such Lord Apollo has endowed me with magical abilities such as Telekinesis. Annabeth went on ahead because she knew I could handle you on my own" Telekinesis? Was that something Apollo really gave to Oracles? Nimrod decided it had to be some kind of trick, something Rachel was using to confuse him while Annabeth got away.

He could still smell demigod so she couldn't be too far away.

He started transforming again, wings shooting out of his back as he increased in size. He lunged at Rachel, trying to pin her down so he could beat her into telling him where Annabeth was, when something grabbed him by his wings and pulled him back, ripping them.

Nimrod spun around, trying to hit the person to ripped his wings but there was nobody there. He turned around again.

"No do you believe in my power?" Rachel said, smirking. Nimrod roared and Rachel had to cover her ears. This time he dropped his disguise completely his body was 24 feet and had lost all semblance of humanity. He destroyed a dozen statues when his body expanded.

Finally Rachel looked scared.

She put her hands up like she was pushing, and an invisible force tried and failed to hold Nimrod back. This time he was too strong for it.

Rachel fell backwards and and pulled something out of her pocket.

A hand-grip exerciser? WTF.

Nimrod hovered his head over Rachel's body, an invisible force still repelling him but very weakly now. "Where is Annabeth Chase?"

"Right here." Annabeth materialized right in front of him, taking off a Yankees cap and stabbing his left eye.

Annabeth dodged to the side as he started thrashing randomly. He turned his head to focus on Rachel with his one good eye. Rachel was still on the ground, she pressed and released the hand-grip exercisor turning into a crossbow. A celestial bronze arrow went straight through his right eye, and out the other side of his head.

Nimrod disintegrated.

After they heard Nimrod's dying scream, Theo decided to give them new orders.

"I am not going to let us be defeated by two teenage girls who don't even have superpowers.

"The grey-eyed witch thinks she's smarter than us; she thinks she can defeat us with hit-and-run tactics; she thinks we'll let ourselves be led into traps one after another. I say it's time to change tactics.

"There's only four ways to get from the top of the Guggenheim museum to the bottom. The first is to run up the ramp 7 stories through the Rotunda; the second is to take the Rotunda elevator; the third is to take the Annex elevator, and the final way is to take the stairs.

"Izzy go disable the elevators, and Cole go destroy the stairs. Once those are gone they'll have to face us head on!"

Cole and Theo were both in dragon form. Cole's form was golden orange and Theo's form was leaf green.

"Why are we listening to your advice? So far all of your plans have involved other people doing all the work while you just relax!"

"You'll listen to me because I'm bigger and stronger. I'm saving my strength for when we have to fight Percy!"

Cole wanted to disobey, but the orders made sense, and if this didn't work he'd never be able to fight Percy.

Cole ripped the doors off the stairway and stuffed himself inside, He breathed a huge blast of fire upwards to weaken the stairs then began using his body to weaken them even further.

He repeated the process until the stairs connecting the first floor and annex 2 were completely destroyed.

Cole didn't realize at first but the girls were there in the stairway, Annabeth was coming down. He shot up another blast of fire and she pressed her body against the walls to avoid it still edging downward. He shot up like a rocket, hurting his entire body in the process but weakening the stairs, so between Annex 2 and 3 to the point they started collapsing.

Annabeth exited onto Annex 3 just in time to escape a blast of fire that destroyed the floor beneath her feet. As soon as Cole broke through onto Annex 3, Annabeth attacked.

She'd pressed her body against the wall just to the right of the entrance to the stairs and when Cole poked his head through she immediately took out his right eye with her knife.

Exhausted from breathing so much fire, his scales severely weakened by falling debris, and now blind in one eye Cole made the uncharacteristic but smart choice to retreat back to the first floor and wait for his body to regenerate.

As he waited for his eye to heal Cole tried very, very hard to remember why they were doing this; what the logic was in trying to capture these girls alive.

Here's the plan: Percy's girlfriend and ex-crush are in the Guggenheim museum. We just have to go in and kidnap them. Then, the trap is sprung when Percy is challenged to rescue the girls he loves. That part should be easy; it's five of us against two girls, and one isn't even a demigod.

Cole decided that after he killed Percy Jackson he was going to kill Theo next.

Izzy had such jolly fun teasing Cole like a schoolboy about the amount of pain he was in, about how stupid it was to use his body as a wrecking ball, and about how he got outsmarted by a girl. Such jolly fun poking Cole's scales wherever it looked like they hurt; such Jolly fun watching him unable to strike back because any energy he wasted fighting Izzy he couldn't use to heal himself.

Best of all, he got to briefly watch Cole and Theo yelling at each other.

"You're an idiot Cole, just like Draco and Nimrod. You're letting yourself get drawn into a trap. You should have just followed my orders and come back as soon as you were finished!"

"Like you're so smart; If hadn't forgotten to tell us Rachel was clear-sighted none of this would have happened! Did you even know she was clear-sighted?"

Suddenly Theo stopped talking to Cole, grabbed Izzy and whispered

"On levels 1-3 of the Guggenheim, on the opposite side of the building from where we are, there's a circular area with a hole cut in the middle. It's just big enough for you to fit through. Slither up to Annex 3, chase Annabeth towards the Rotunda then we'll ambush her.

Don't assume human form for any reason. Keep your eyes closed and navigate only by sound, touch, and smell. Follow my orders and she won't be able to kill you; disobey my orders you will die."

Izzy had the least dragon-like dragon form of any of the 5. Izzy's dragon form didn't have wings at least not right now, it never had any legs. It was just a purplish, bluish snake. It looked rather like a cobra but its head was still a dragon, and it had two horns on top just like Theo. The bottom half of Izzy's body was coiled up at the bottom floor, the top half of his body was extended upwards.

As he extended upwards through annex 2 there was a herd of mortals who believed they would be safe if they stayed far away from the Rotunda. Izzy tried to give them a big scare but the mist stopped them from noticing his presence.

Izzy groaned then closed his eyes and went one more floor up.

When Izzy reached annex 3 there was silence, Izzy kept his eyes closed so he couldn't see his surroundings but he smelled cofeee–this must have been a cafe area. He couldn't hear any mortals screaming or smell any mortals.

But he did smell one single demigod.

Izzy opened his mouth, quickly extended towards the source of the smell then snapped his mouth shut; he heard foot steps dodge to the side. He did the same thing again.

For some reason Annabeth wasn't running away or trying to escape, she just kept dodging from one side to another.

Then he heard something fall down, and as soon as Izzy sank his teeth into it they started to ache. His eyes shot open.

Annabeth had pushed over a stone statue; that's what he'd sunken his teeth into. He saw her standing dagger in hand, and closed his eyes right before she had the chance to blind him.

Izzy shook his head violently while pulling his mouth open, and when he finally did get his mouth free the statue flew to the other side of the room, several of his teeth came out in the process.

Annabeth still wasn't running away; he heard her footsteps behind him. This time when Izzy struck he bit into his own body and drew blood. Izzy's head was stuck once again and he tried to be careful as she struggled to get his head free, this time worried he might cut himself in half. When he finally did get his head free half of his remaining teeth came out.

The teeth that came out remained lodged inside his body, causing internal bleeding. Annabeth walked around him pushing Izzy's teeth deeper into his body, making his pain more intense. Then strangely she ripped one of the teeth out of his body.

Izzy was literally fighting blind; he couldn't concentrate on her footsteps anymore. She could be anywhere.

It was just then it occurred to him how stupid it was that Theo expected him to attack Annabeth without seeing her.

Izzy decided it was best to just flee. He didn't want to run away and suffer through the richly deserved bullying he would surely receive from Cole and Theo, but he hated the idea of going back to Tartarus even more.

He tried to slither back down to the bottom, he had to be careful with the muslces punctured by his teeth if he tried to contract those muscles he'd hurt himself.

He faced strait upwards as he descended, but Annabeth wasn't going to let him get away so easily. She jumped onto his face as he descended and kicked downward at Izzy's remaining teeth loosening them even more as he lowered her down. She jumped off of him onto Annex 2 when he tried to shake her off.

Izzy still kept his eyes closed but it didn't sound like anybody noticed Annabeth's sudden arrival.

Izzy at this point no longer cared about the plan or killing Percy or anything except defending himself against Annabeth Chase, he was ready to unleash a blast of fire to incinerate Annabeth and all the mortals around her.

As he breathed in, Annabeth threw a tooth she'd extracted into Izzy's throat. Izzy choked on it until he exploded into yellow dust.

When Annabeth Chase first came to this museum she didn't think today was going to be any fun at all, but so far she'd enjoyed nearly every minute of it.

Granted, most of her enjoyment had come from killing the Ismenian dragon and tricking the Nemean dragon into thinking Rachel had telekinesis. Before the dragons had arrived, when they spent their time looking at art all she and Rachel did was argue.

She'd pocketed several of the Ismenian dragons teeth. According to the legend, when Cadmus planted those dragon teeth in the earth he was able to grow them into warriors called the Spartio. After this fight was over Annabeth wanted to test that.

Now three of the five dragons were dead. Everything was going according to plan, as the dragons reacted just as she'd expected.

When Annabeth entered the Rotunda she heard the two surviving dragons were arguing. It was actually amusing to listen to.

"Admit it, you're not as smart as you think you are!"

"Of course I am, maybe even a little smarter!"

"You don't know any more than me or Izzy or Draco or Nimrod. We all listened to you. Everyone died following your meaningless orders!"

"My orders were perfect they died because they weren't smart enough or strong enough!"

Annabeth made sure to look confident and victorious before she got the dragons' attention by announcing "How nice your all here in one place, I'd like to let you know I graciously accept you're surrender! Now please leave before I have to destroy you as well!"

The dragons looked really confused that she wasn't afraid of them. The golden orange one, Cole still hadn't regenerated his eye. The rest of his body seemed healed though.

The leaf green one, who must have been Theo, looked absolutely pissed "You don't know who your dealing with little girl! If you knew who I was you would be begging for me to forgive that insult and spare your life!"

Annabeth closed her eyes, threw her head back and laughed, like that was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. She her head was up she glanced at Rachel above her to make sure she was following the plan.

"...after we've I've killed the Nemean dragon, we'll split up.

We can't gamble our success on the Thespian dragon being dumb enough to walk away from the doors. We need a way to kill him where he stands. Take the crossbow and cut the cables keeping "All" in the air."

"That piece of work is culmination of an artists entire life! You want me to ruin it?" Rachel protested.

"don't worry, Lou Ellen owes me a favor; after this is over I'll ask the Hecate cabin to lift it back up and fix everything

"Once they find out the Nemean dragon is dead, they'll have a few choices choices. If they spread themselves out across the building I can attack them one by one.

"If they recognize what I'm doing they'll try to restrict my movement, probably by disabling the elevators and doing something to the stairs. Once they have me contained in a single annex they might try attacking me, but if they do they can't all assume their dragon forms because there won't be enough space.

"More likely they'll try to force me out into the Rotunda because that has enough space for them all to assume dragon form.

"Don't start shooting until you see me at the bottom."

Theo probably wasn't used to running into people who knew who he was, but Annabeth was well versed in even the most obscure ancient Greek myths.

"I know exactly what I'm dealing with: Draco was the the Gigantomachian dragon all he ever did was get thrown at my mom by a Giant. She wrestled him and threw him against the stars.

"The Nemean dragon is from the seven against thebes story; all he did was kill a baby and get killed by seven heroes.

"The Ismenian dragon battled Cadmus but was killed when Cadmus threw a rock at him.

"All of the other dragons have experience fighting famous heroes, Draco even briefly fought a goddess.

"They all had more experience than the two of you."

Annabeth turned to face to leaf green dragon directly

"You're the Thespian dragon, you never battled any famous demigods you just ravaged human villages, demanding they send you one of their youths every year as a sacrifice or you'd destroy them. A mortal named Menestratos put on spiky armor then let you devour him, you died because a mortal outsmarted you."

Annabeth then turned to the golden orange dragon and told his story.

"You're the Colchian dragon, and you used to have a job guarding the Golden Fleece... until Jason and the seven Argonauts came looking for it. But you never had a chance to fight against Jason because his girlfriend Medea put you to sleep using her gift of charm speech."

"I was cheated out of the chance to fight one of the greatest heroes of all time! I was cheated out a chance for glory because of that woman's witchcraft!"

Even in his dragons voice Cole's words still sounded weak and pathetic. Annabeth glanced upwards Rachel was halfway done, out of the ten cables, there was only five of them left.

Annabeth needed to keep the dragons distracted for only a little while longer.

"Neither of you have any experience battling demigod. I've been battling monsters since I was seven years old.

"I think you're the ones with no clue who your dealing with.

"Youre entire strategy was based on the flawed assumption that I was interested in escaping, not winning. You came here expecting an easy victory instead of a long hard battle." The Thespian dragon unleashed a blast of fire and Annabeth unable to dodge to either side simply did a somersault backwards and pressed herself against the wall.

"Well" Theo replied "Now the battle is over; we have you just where we want you, and as soon as your boyfriend hears we have you Percy will come blindly rushing to your rescue and fall right into our trap"

Annabeth threw back her head in laughter again. Four cables left, Annabeth just needed to keep them distracted for a little while longer.

"You really don't know what your up against! Every battle Percy has ever fought I've been there by his side. I'm the reason Percy has survived this long! I'm the reason he won the Titan War!

"I am Annabeth Chase, architect of Olympus, daughter of Athena, and I am not a Damsel in Distress!"

Rachel took out another Cable, then the three that were left snapped on their own; every statue and painting in the entire gallery came crashing down on the dragons' head. Finally the metal platform itself came down and crushed them completely. The monsters turned into dust and dissipated back to Tartarus.

The girls left the museum right after they killed the dragons, and managed to escape before the police arrived. At the moment they were in a train that should take them back to Queens. After that Rachel could take a cab back to her place.

Right after they sat down, Annabeth explained to Rachel why the dragons came after them.

"They wanted to kidnap us just because we like Percy...I mean just because you like Percy? So you're automatically making yourself a target for bad guys by dating him?"

"I don't mind, Percy is worth it." Annabeth assured Rachel, she didn't realize right away how much her words bit, then Annabeth added"Besides I can take care of myself..."

After that Rachel Dare just looked depressed. It was weird how fast Rachel's moods could swing between high and low energy. She was so energetic just 15 minutes ago.

"Annabeth, unlike you, I can't take care of myself."

"You threw a comb at the Titan Lord's eye and saved by boyfriend's life" Annabeth pointed out. "And today you killed two dragons and helped me kill a third."

"That's different. Annabeth, I'm an artist not a fighter. I'm not super smart like you, or super strong like Thalia. I don't have magic like Ellen and I can't use a sword or wrestle like Clarisse.

I can take care of myself in the mortal world just fine but I can't defend myself against mythical creatures without help.

I was only able to kill those dragons because I was following your plan. If you hadn't been there I would have been captured for sure."

Annabeth took the dragon teeth out of her pocket, she really didn't want to give these up. She wanted to have Spartio servants bring her brinks, and do her chores. But Annabeth decided the safety of her friend came before her leisure.

She showed the teeth to Rachel Dare.

"These are the teeth of the Ismenian dragon; Cadmus sewn dragons teeth in the earth and made himself a new race of men, known as the Spartio. Percy confirmed the myth is real, and all you have to do is water the teeth with blood, and they'll sprout out fully grown warriors that will obey your commands.

"With the kind of money you have it wouldn't be that hard to bribe a few people from the red cross into giving you transfusion bags."

Rachel almost accepted them then she retracted her hand and gave Annabeth a skeptical look "I just finished reading Frankenstein; if I sow these dragons teeth into the earth the soldiers I make aren't going to turn on me are they?"

Rachel said it, half skeptical about her gift and half afraid she'd asked a stupid question. That was actually something Annabeth had to think about.

"Well the Spartio didn't turn on Cadmus or Jason when they tried this trick and they didn't turn on Atlas either when he tried it. I think you're safe.

"If any bad guys come to kidnap you you'll have your own minions you can sic on them. I need you to remember you are not powerless."

Rachel accepted the dragons teeth put them in her jacket pocket and then gave Annabeth a hug.

"What are friends for?"

"Apparently killing dragons"

Friday, February 12, 2010, New Moon Bar and grill, New York
New Moon bar and grill was a meeting place for monsters. Antiphates, former king of the Laristygotian giants, cooked the food which was always partially made of human or demigod meat and all the drinks were primarily human or demigod blood.

There were empusa pole dancing on one end of the bar, any human would have simply been disgusted by them but the monsters seemed strangely aroused by it. The juke box was playing the frantic screams of Manades. Naga was in one of the building's darkest corners trying to recruit a gang of monsters to help him in his quest. "Jason Grace the hero of Rome is right now a fish out of water in Camp Half-blood. If we defeat Jason then Gaea will surely make us part of her honor guard.

"Here's the plan: Valentines day is on Febuary 14th. Every year on February the 13th, which is tomorrow all the girls in the Aphrodite cabin are going to Roosevelt field, the 6th largest mall in America, to go clothes shopping for dresses to wear on Valentines day. The Aphrodite cabin counsellor just happens to be Piper McLain, Jason's girlfriend. We just have to go in and kidnap her. Then, the trap is sprung when Jason is challenged to rescue the girls he loves.

"This part should be easy were just going up against an Aphrodite girl, and their heads can't process anything except fashion, jewelry, and sex."

Some lessons just need to be learned the hard way.