Warriors || Leo Valdez [2]

6

 Leo, Alex and Hazel stumbled to a stop in the doorway, carrying a large sheet of hammered bronze between them.

"Gods of Olympus." Piper stared at Leo. "What happened to you?"

His hair was greased back. He had welding goggles on his forehead, a lipstick mark on his cheek, tattoos all over his arms, and a T-shirt that read HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO.

"Long story," he said. 

"Others back?" Alex asked.

"Not yet," Piper said.

Leo cursed. Then Alex noticed Jason sitting up, and her face brightened. Leo noticed him too and walked toward him.

"Hey, man! Glad you're better. I'll be in the engine room."

He ran off with the sheet of bronze, leaving Hazel and Alex in the doorway.

Piper snickered. "Team Leo?"

Jason raised his eyebrows and tried not to laugh.

"We met Narcissus," Hazel said, which didn't really explain much. 

"Also Nemesis, the revenge goddess." Added Alex.

Jason sighed. "I miss all the fun."

On the deck above, something went THUMP, as if a heavy creature had landed. Annabeth and Percy came running down the hall. Percy was toting a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelled horrible. Annabeth had a patch of black sticky stuff in her hair. Percy's shirt was covered in it.

"Roofing tar?" Piper guessed.

Frank stumbled up behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of the black sludge down his face.

"Ran into some tar monsters," Annabeth said. "Hey, Jason, glad you're awake. Alex, where's Leo?"

She pointed down. "Engine room."

Suddenly the entire ship listed to port. The demigods stumbled. Percy almost spilled his bucket of tar.

"Uh, what was that?" he demanded.

"Oh..." Hazel looked embarrassed. "We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake."

"Like... all of them." Alex shrugged. 

"Great." Percy handed the bucket of tar to Frank and Annabeth. "You guys help Leo. Alex and I'll hold off the water spirits as long as we can."

"On it!" Frank promised.

And with that, the siblings ran above deck. Percy taught her how to use the water against the nymphs and while trying to keep Coach Hedge from jumping in the water to fight the nymphs, they finally managed to drive them away.

Hedge turned to the controls and lifted the ship into air. Alex collapsed beside Percy and began to laugh like a mad woman. 

"You okay?" Percy asked, unsure how to proceed. 

"Yep, just had the weirdest day..." She trailed off, her laughter stopped when she remembered seeing Nemesis, who had looked like Gabe to her. 

"So..." Percy said. "Why did you run away?" 

Alex frowned, she knew the conversation was coming, but she still wasn't prepared for it. "You mean, you don't remember?" Percy shook his head.

"Gabe...." Alex trailed off, though she didn't need to say any more because Percy's eyes widened, and then darkened. "I thought mom knew about it, but did nothing. It was only when dad told me she didn't know, I realised how selfish I had been"