𝙸 𝙲𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜

𝚂𝟸𝙴𝟷𝟼: 𝚆𝚎 𝙻𝚘𝚜𝚎 $𝟷𝟶𝟶,𝟶𝟶𝟶 𝚝𝚘 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝 𝙿𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝

Final Part of The Post-Finals Paintball Crisis

Inspired by Community S2E24: "For A Few Paintballs More."

Piper/Annabeth POV

"This was a good plan, right?" Jason asks.

"Yeah," says Piper. "If anything, it'll split the enemies in half so Annabeth and Percy can get to the RV and rescue Hazel."

"Do you think we're going to... you know... get shot?" he asks. He's so adorable when he's worried; his eyebrows get all squished together and he sort of looks like he's about to cry, and even though she can't see through his mask, Piper just knows the scar on his lip is contorted from his frown. So sue her. Piper likes a sensitive man. Men should be allowed to feel feelings.

"With the genius minds of Annabeth and Leo combined? Not a chance. We're going to win this thing," Piper says to comfort him.

"There's a chance," Leo says.

She shoots Leo a death glare because they should be reassuring Jason right now.

"What?" Leo fires back. "There's a chance."

"Is Plan Twenty-Three ready to go?" Jason asks.

Nyssa hits a couple of buttons on her phone. "East wing secured."

"The stacks are covered," says Malcolm. "Nothing's getting past that tarp." Whatever this Plan Twenty-Three is, it required the team to cover the dozens of shelves of books with a massive tarp, like the kind you use for painting heavy-duty projects. Piper appreciates the dedication to protecting the library books that nobody ever uses, but now she's feeling wary of Plan Twenty-Three. If it poses a threat to school property, what kind of threat might it pose to her?

"How about the west side?" Jason asks. "And the basement too. Where are we at with that?"

Jake drops a Mason Jar of green paint onto the floor. "I... I got to the west side, but the elevator is out of service." He reaches for the jar, but it keeps rolling across the tiling, like a dollar on a string.

Piper picks up the jar and hands it over. "What do you need to do in the basement? We can help."

"It's okay. Beckendorf's got it," Jake says. "God, he's probably one of the best handymen we've got."

Silena clears her throat. "You mean gods."

"It's not catching on," says Mitchell.

"The singular just flows better," Lacy agrees.

"It's been a while," Leo says. "We really should start planning the escape route."

Jason nods his head in agreement. "Somebody text Beck and tell him to meet us at the rendezvous point." He turns to Leo. "Where exactly is the rendezvous point?"

Leo scratches his chin through his mask. "I was thinking through the vents, but there's no way we can get Jake's chair through."

"What about the window in the computer lab?" Nyssa asks. "We could take the pane out and lift Jake through that way."

Jake cracks his knuckles. "I'm really fine if you have to leave me," he says. "It's a worthy cause to go down for."

"Not an option," says Jason. "We're going to think of something."

"Hold on," Piper says, waving her arms around. "Here you engineering majors are, rigging Plan Twenty-Three, whatever the hell that is, and you never discussed an escape route?"