Warriors || Leo Valdez [2]

33

As Alex's friends disembarked from the ship, the crowd of ghosts shimmered and disappeared.

There was a small pop and behind them Violet stepped out of a cloud of purple smoke. They looked around, confused as if they didn't mean to come here. Then they caught sight of Bacchus. 

"Dad" They greeted. 

"Mine... but not mine" Bacchus paid no special attention toward Violet. Their face dropped and they swallowed thickly before turning toward Nico.

 Piper and Nico struggled down from the emperor's box as the Colosseum's magical renovations began to turn into mist. The arena floor remained solid, but otherwise the stadium looked as if it hadn't hosted a good giant killing for eons.

Violet and Nico surged forward, though Nico almost tripped several times. 

"Fuck you di Angelo" Violet said before they both collapsed onto the floor, holding each other. Nico kissed their forehead and they stayed that way.

"Well," Bacchus said. "That was fun. You have my permission to continue your voyage."

"Your permission?" Alex asked with disbelief.

"Yes." Bacchus raised an eyebrow. "Although your voyage may be a little harder than you expect, son of Neptune."

"Poseidon," Alex corrected him automatically. "What do you mean about his voyage?"

"You might try the parking lot behind the Emmanuel Building," Bacchus said. "Best place to break through. Now, good-bye, my friends. And, ah, good luck with that other little matter."
The god vaporized in a cloud of mist that smelled faintly of grape juice. Jason ran to meet Piper and Nico.

And then Alex collapsed, thankfully into familiar arms. She opened her eyes to meet Leo's concerned ones. She smiled faintly before she was surrounded by her friends.

"Lex, you okay?" Leo asked.

"Now I am" Leo pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Aw, were you scared for me?"

Leo rolled his eyes and helped her to her feet, although he kept an arm around her shoulder.

"Was that Dionysus?" Hedge asked. "I love that guy!"

"You're alive!" Percy said to the others. "The giants said you were captured. What happened?"

Leo shrugged. "Oh, just another brilliant plan by Leo Valdez. You'd be amazed what you can do with an Archimedes sphere, a girl who can sense stuff underground, and a weasel."

"I was the weasel," Frank said glumly, which made Alex chuckle painfully.

"Basically," Leo explained, "I activated a hydraulic screw with the Archimedes device-which is going to be awesome once I install it in the ship, by the way. Hazel sensed the easiest path to drill to the surface. We made a tunnel big enough for a weasel, and Frank climbed up with a simple transmitter that I slapped together. After that, it was just a matter of hacking into Coach Hedge's favorite satellite channels and telling him to bring the ship around to rescue us . After he got us, finding you was easy, thanks to that godly light show at the Colosseum."

Percy looked like he still disapproved about Alex being in Leo's arms but he nodded, "Take care of Allie, I need to find Annabeth"

Leo winced. "Yeah, about that... she's still in trouble, we think. Hurt, broken leg, maybe-at least according to this vision Gaea shown us. Rescuing her is our next stop."

"Tell me about the vision," Percy's eyes lit up madly. "Tell me everything."

The floor shook. The wooden planks began to disappear, spilling sand into the pits of the hypogeum below.