"After all those years on the streets, I finally feel like I'm home"
"You're lying" Leo didn't even have to look up, he knew her better than anyone.
"You're right, I was always at home with you"
In which there's an unlikely friendship (... and ma...
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Jason blinked. "Leo, was I just about to stab you?"
"Something about my mother...?" Leo frowned, then turned toward Medea. "You... you're working for Dirt Woman. You sent her to the machine shop." He lifted his arm. "Lady, I got a three-pound hammer with your name on it."
Alex grinned, she was glad to have Leo back. He looked at her and gave her a sheepish smile.
"Bah!" Medea sneered. "I'll simply collect payment another way."
She pressed one of the mosaic tiles on the floor, and the building rumbled. Jason swung his sword at Medea, but she dissolved into smoke and reappeared at the base of the escalator.
"You're slow, hero!" She laughed. "Take your frustration out on my pets!"
Before Alex could go after her, the giant bronze sundials at either end of the fountain swung open. Two snarling gold beasts-flesh-and-blood winged dragons-crawled out from the pits below. Each was the size of a camper van, maybe not large compared to Festus, but large enough.
"So that's what's in the kennels," Leo said meekly.
"Don't look them in the eye!" Jason warned. "They'll paralyze you."
"Indeed!" Medea was leisurely riding the escalator up, leaning against the handrail as she watched the fun. "These two dears have been with me a long time-sun dragons, you know, gifts from my grandfather Helios. They pulled my chariot when I left Corinth, and now they will be your destruction. Ta-ta!"
The dragons lunged. Alex, Leo and Jason shared a look.
Medea was almost to the second floor, where she'd be able to choose from a wide assortment of deadly appliances.
"Oh, no, you don't," Piper growled, and took off after her.
Alex, Jason and Leo stood back to back, their weapons in their hands. The dragons charged and Jason picked the left one while Leo and Alex ran to the right one.
It leapt and landed right in front of them. Alex focused on the fountain whose water had gone back to normal. She felt a tug at the bottom of her stomach as she willed the water to rise.
The two dragons forgot to fight and watched in fascination as Alex made the water float high above them. Then before they knew what was happening, Alex used the water to push the dragons into the pits where they had come from.
Leo raced to the fountain and pressed the marble tile, closing the sundials. They shuddered as the dragons banged against them, trying to get out, but for the moment they were contained.
Leo stared at Alex for a moment and Alex thought he might kiss her, but Piper's scream pulled them back into reality.
CRASH! The stained glass ceiling splintered in a rain of multicoloured shards, and Festus the bronze dragon dropped into the department store. Alex, Jason and Leo got on him and flew to pick Piper up and get the hell out of there.
